Human Potential
by dazzlar1
Summary: What if Jesse was turned a year earlier? What would happen with no slayer around? Who would step up and stand against the darkness?
1. The First Step Into A Much Large World

**Human Potential**

AN:- This story starts off in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and will crossover into Stargate. There will be visits to The Adept book series, Vampires, Aliens and Predator movies.

Disclaimer:- I don't own these worlds; I'm just playing in them. I'm not making any money from this story so relax. You might consider it free advertising though.

Summary: - What if Jesse was turned a year earlier? What would happen with no slayer around? Who would step up and stand against the darkness?

Canon differences: - Xander was into fantasy novels, games and movies, not comic books. Willow was likewise into sci-fi. Xander was not physically abused by his parents. The magic system will be a little different and so will the vampires and demons.

Thankyou to my betas - Adam and Reyad. Without your input this would be pretty rough.

Chapter 1 – The First Step Into A Much Larger World

September 1996

It was close to midnight and the graveyard was eerily silent. The sky was partly cloudy but let through enough starlight to provide some illumination in this place of death. There was no breeze, no rustling of trees, no animal sounds and no 20th century noise either. It was like the graveyard was waiting for something. This was the calm before the storm, the pregnant pause before all hell breaks loose.

Sitting around a fresh grave were two teenagers. They were cross-legged next to each other. The male with his arm around the female and the female resting her head against his shoulder. They both had tear marks on their faces. They had talked and cried earlier and were now just sitting, silently in their grief.

Their best friend Jesse was dead. He had died yesterday and his funeral was earlier that afternoon. They had been told he was killed by some gang members on PCP. He had been cut down before the prime of his life. He was only 14.

The silence was suddenly broken with a seemingly loud 'beep-beep'. This was quickly followed by an 'eep' and an 'ack'. The young girl Willow's watch had chimed midnight. She had eeped and her other best friend, Xander, had acked.

Xander recovered quickly and said, "Your watch scared the jeepers out of me Wills." Willow leaned into him further and replied, "Stupid watch, it was a special moment here. It has no business scaring people. Here we are sitting Shiva for Jesse and it just rudely interrupted us. Never again will Minnie be bought by this here girl."

Xander was going to comment on Minnie's' lack of manners when he heard a crunch. There were several more following as well. He looked around trying to find the source and couldn't. What did catch his immediate attention was the pile of dirt in front of him shifting.

With more ack's and eep's, the two teenagers leapt to their feet. The dirt on the grave of their friend was rising. Something was pushing the dirt up from underneath. This was rating pretty high on the Wiggins scale and suggested they step back, which they did.

The pile of dirt kept shifting and rising until first one then another hand shot out of the ground. Any thought of eeping and acking were non existent as jaws were hanging open in shock or perhaps awe. In seconds there was a body standing in front of them, shacking dirt from its self. It was Jesse.

Xander gasped, "Holy moly! Jesse?" The body in front of them stopped shaking and opened its eyes. A twisted smile quickly lit its face as it saw them.

Jesse said, "I'm so happy you guys are here. I missed my dinner and you guys came to help me out. Thanks a bunch." His face warped into that of a demon with fangs and yellow eyes. Clawed hands reached for the two teenagers.

Willow freaked and screamed, backing away. Xander stumbled back, falling to the ground, but sticking his foot out to ward off the nastiness. Jesse's rush quickly stopped when he encountered a foot in the balls curtesy of Xander. This caused him to hunch over in pain and it gave Xander a chance to regain his feet.

Jesse snarled at him, "You will pay for that Xan. I'm gunna rip your arms off and beat you to death with them. I'm going to drain you dry and then start on your little friend." In mid motion, the demon stopped and sniffed. He smiled evilly and said, "Oh, she's on the rag. It smells delightful. What a wonderful virginal aroma. I'm going to enjoy going the growl and chewing down on that."

Willow went from freaked out to furious in less than a heart beat. This thing might have looked like Jesse initially, but nobody said that to her. No one, not even Cordelia had ever made her this mad before. Her normally genius mind was shunted aside and a single thought permeated her head…kill!

Xander's standard response to threats had always been get away from them in whatever way possible. When attacked verbally, he crumpled. When threatened physically, he made non-threatening gestures with his hands and bolted at the first opportunity. His flight or fight response had been locked on flight for all his life. Hearing the hatred and utter certainty of his painful death come from the Jesse-demon in front of him, Xander knew he was going to die. He knew it to his core. His normal fear left him and he became strangely calm. Something primal awakened within him at that point. When faced with certain death, the basal part of him reared up. There was no way he was going down without a fight.

The three friends came together in a mess of flying limbs. The hate filled demon Jesse, the berserk Willow and the calm but determined Xander. Two living and one dead, it didn't go well for the living. Xander and Willow were wailing on Jesse with wild haymakers. Jesse was fast enough to not just match four arms with his two, but quickly gain the upper hand. Willow was knocked flying with a backhand blow. Xander managed to land a punch before coping one in return. In the past, although Jesse was taller, Xander was always stronger. Now the tables had turned. Jesse's punch felt like a thunderbolt as it hit his jaw, sending him reeling.

As Jesse moved in to finish Xander off, Willow careened into him, sending both to the ground. Willow was fighting like a woman possessed, which is ironic considering her opponent. She managed to get in a few blows, which were probably stronger than Xander's at the moment, but they didn't seem to faze Jesse. With a hard shove Jesse threw her from him, gaining definite air, before she stumbled to the ground again.

Xander shook out his jaw and with a glare, rejoined the fight. He took two quick steps and then landed a hard kick into Jesse's side as he was getting up. There was a cry of pain from his ex friend. Several more kicks followed before Willow joined in. The two living were kicking the daylights out of the one dead.

Jesse tried to stand up and got kicked in the head for his trouble. He tried turning to the side but was kicked in the other side. Each way he turned he got kicked. By this time he had a couple of broken ribs. He started crawling forwards trying to get away. As he picked up speed, the kicks slowed down. He was finally able to get his legs under him and started to stand.

Xander knew that if Jesse got fully up he and Willow were in serious trouble. Glancing quickly around, he saw a tree a few yards away. This was his chance to finish it. As Jesse got partway up, Xander stopped kicking him and charged him with his shoulder. It wasn't a flying tackle, but rather a continuous leg driving shove. Xander was trying to slam Jesse head first into the tree.

Just before Jesse's head hit the tree, he managed to stand up fully. This was very unfortunate for him because he hit the tree chest first. Rather he hit the broken off branch that was sticking out of the tree, chest first.

Xander shoved Jesse into the tree and he just came apart under his hands, turning to dust. This was not part of the plan and caused Xander to slam into the tree himself, in what looked like a classic tackle. He bounced straight off and hit the deck hard, his shoulder screaming in pain.

Willow suddenly found herself without a target and the berserk rage left her. She crumpled to the ground breathing heavily. Her brain was struggling to reboot itself and make sense of what just happened.

As the pain in Xander's shoulder slowly dimmed, he noticed something very odd. Jesse's clothes were still hanging off the broken tree branch and were covered in dust. Moving closer, he discovered that all Jesse's clothes were there, including, underwear, shoes and socks. His keys and wallet were even in his pockets.

Perplexed, Xander turned to Willow to get the answers, as always. He saw Willow was in a bit of a mess. She looked completely out of it. He called to her and it took several times before she looked up.

Willow was still in a muddle when she noticed Xander calling her. She looked up with a, "Huh, what?" He responded, "Are you ok?"

Willow started to talk, slowly at first, then rapidly into babble mode. "Am I ok? No I'm not ok! Jesse came out of the ground. Our dead friend Jesse came to life and tried to kill us. How could he do that? We were his friends. Friends don't do that to one another. How could he come back to life? Where did he go? Are those his clothes? What's all the dust? Ooh no! We killed Jesse! We killed an already dead Jesse!"

Xander made his way over and enfolded her in a hug. She clung to him like a lifeline. He softly said, "It's ok Willow. We are safe now. He can't hurt us."

They sat there for a while calming down. The adrenalin slowly left them and their mental faculties returned. Willow asked, "Xander what just happened?"

Xander sat back a bit and looked at her. He said, "Jesse came out of his grave and tried to kill us. His face changed and he was stronger. We fought and I shoved him into that tree. I think he turned to dust. His clothes are still there."

Willow looked right back at him and said, "That's what I thought happened. But how can this be? People don't rise from the dead. Well unless that Christianity thing is true. But Jesse wasn't into religion. Then he turned to dust. People don't turn to dust that fast, it takes years, decades even."

Xander sighed and said, "I don't know Wills. I would normally joke and say he had all the markings of a classic vampire. But this is real life. It's not like the books I read. We are not in the Forgotten Realms or Ravenloft, we're in California."

Willow got up and said, "That's right those are fantasy books and worlds, this is Sunnydale. There has to be a logical explanation for all this." She then marched over the Jesse's clothes and examined the scene. She pulled the shirt off the tree and noticed the branch had made a hole in it, right where Jesse's heart used to be.

Blood drained from her face, not that Xander could tell, and she turned back to him. She said, "I think you might be right. I haven't read as much fantasy as you, but even I know a stake through the heart kills vampires."

Xander stood up and joined her. He picked up the rest of the clothes and shook the dust of them. He said, "So vampires are real then. We are standing alone in the middle of a graveyard at night. We have no weapons but a tree and our razor sharp wit. We were lucky to live through that, but if we stay any longer, I think we go from lucky to stupid and dead."

Willow gaped at him for a brief moment before breaking into a run. Xander quickly joined her and they raced away. They ran as fast as they could towards Willows place, which was closer and didn't have Xander's parents in it. They bounded up the front door panting. Willow did the key thing and Xander tried to look in every direction at once.

Willow got the door open and they leaped inside. The door was quickly locked and bolted. Willow hurried upstairs, Xander following her. As soon as she got to her room she went straight to her school bag and grabbed some pencils. She threw some to Xander and stood there panting. Armed with a pencil in each hand her eyes darted around the room.

Xander closed the door and locked it. He then secured the window and pulled the curtains. Xander was in slightly better shape than Willow, so he recovered first. He sat down on he bed and said, "I think we are safe here Wills. If not your trusty 2b can take them out."

As Willows breathing slowly got under control, she noticed that her friend's sense of humour was back. She moved over to her desk and sat down, facing him. She said, "So vampires are real and we killed one tonight. That's so like, wow!"

Xander nodded and said, "Totally wow. Did it have to be Jesse though? All that's left is his clothes. Man that sucks." He gestured to the pile by the door.

Willow said, "It wasn't meant to happen. They said he got killed by some gang high on PCP. Hey, they say that a lot in the paper. There are always gangs high on drugs killing people. But it wasn't was it? It was a vampire. Some vampire killed Jesse then he tried to kill us. There are an awful lot of gang killings going on. I wonder if they are all vampires. Hey, what if none of them are really gangs? That would be so of the bad."

Xander agreed, "It's very of the bad Wills. If all those gang killings are really vampires, then this town must be full of them. Where would they live though? Most books say they live in coffins. Aren't you meant to have to find their coffins and stake them there? Jesse didn't turn to gas and float away, he just dusted."

Willow frowned and thoughtfully said, "It seems like a lot of what's in the books is wrong. We need to look at this in a logical and scientific manner. We have a lot of theories about vampires and only a little proof. We need to make a facts list."

Willow turned around to her computer and turned on the monitor. Within seconds she had a Word document open. She said, "Ok let's start with what we know. You can kill them with a stake to the heart. They are very strong, fast and tough. They have claws, fangs, yellow eyes and a Klingon like forehead."

Xander chuckled at Willow's sci-fi-ness. He said, "They also have a normal face that can change into the fangy Klingon. I wonder if they can change back though. I reckon they could, but we don't know for sure yet. When they die they turn to dust leaving their clothes behind. Hey that is weird. Jesse was buried with his wallet and keys. What's up with that? Why would the morgue do that? I thought the personal effects go to the next of kin."

Willow turned and looked at him. She replied, "It is weird. Maybe the morgue guys know about vampires. Maybe they like don't want the vampires coming into the morgue looking for their stuff. I wouldn't want them doing that."

Xander smiled at her and said, "I reckon you're right on the money. But, as you say, it's only a theory at the moment. It does raise a very important point though. How many people know about this? If the guy in the morgue knows, wouldn't he have told the police? Are the police covering all this up, with that PCP nonsense?"

Willow paled a bit and said, "That is an important point. I have a more important one though. What are we going to do about it? Do we ignore it and hope we never meet another vampire? Do we trust the police to take care of it? If we say something about it, will the town council and police do something to us? They would have to know something is going on. With so many supposed PCP deaths and the morgue guy, they would have to know about it."

Xander paled as well. He said, "Yeah I agree they would probably know. But we don't have proof yet. What we do have is proof vampires exist. As for what we do about it, we stay alive. We do what it takes to stay alive and we kill them all." He finished this off with a look that trumped Willows resolve face several times over.

Willow just looked at him. She was impressed with his new face. Then she pouted and said, "You beat my resolve face. You put that face away right now mister. That face is banned from being used on the Willow. No new Xander face here."

Xander smirked at her, licked the top of his index finger and motioned a one in the air. He said, "The Xan man scores. I'm going to have to name this face sometime. But for now, what do you think we should do about vampires?"

Willow replied, "We definitely stay alive. If vampires are out there killing, someone should stop them. The one who killed Jesse is out there somewhere and we should be the ones to stop him or her." Seeing Xander's nod, she continued, "But I don't want to go out tonight and look for it. I don't want to die. What if it's an adult vampire? What if it's stronger than Jesse was? What if it's not alone?"

Xander blanched at the thought of multiple older vampires. He said, "Oh I agree totally Wills. We stay away from lots of vampires and old vampires. Actually, I'm not ready to go hunting Jesse's killer yet. I want to be ready to do it, but I'm not. Let's get ready, really ready before we go after them."

Willow put on her resolve face and said, "Absolutely. Let's get ready. So um how do we get ready then? Oh I know what to do. We have to learn what they can do and what they can't do. We need to learn about them so we know how to stay alive and how to kill them. I think we should do some training too. Jesse was really strong and fast and tough. If he had been chasing us home, he would have caught us."

Xander nodded and said, "I don't like the idea of study or training, but I like the idea of being dead even less. It makes sense, to be able to hunt them we need to know about them. We also need to be able to survive them." Here Xander grinned and said, "We need to go up some levels, get some magic weapons and magic buff items."

Willow laughed and said, "Have you been playing Baldur's Gate again? I don't know where we can get some magic buff items or even magic weapons, but we train and get experience and level up. Hang on one minute. If there are vampires around, what else is too?"

Xander looked at her with a solemn face and said, "You have just taken your first step into a much larger world." He then cracked up. Willow laughed with him then glared and said, "That's my line. Sci-fi girl here remember. You're the fantasy boy. Stay in your own worlds!"

Xander shot straight back at her, "Star Wars is everybody's world. What you suggest is blasphemy! It's evil I tell you. It's against the very force itself. You cannot take away Star Wars from anyone. It crossed all boundaries of space and time. I mean, even the oldies watch it."

Willow pouted and said, "Ok mister, you can have that one. But we are so in the dark here. We can theorise all we want but we don't know much about what's in this new world of ours."

Xander simply said, "We do what we can with what we have. We may not have much at the moment, but we can try to maximise what we've got. For now we need to start training and get some weapons. We can learn more as we go."

Willow felt a lot better about that. They would start training and add to their facts list as they went. One thing was certain, she wouldn't be going anywhere from now on without at least a pencil with her.

*****

Xander made it home the next morning and put on some washing. He and Willow had decided to wash Jesse's clothes before giving them to charity. The shirt had bloodstains and a hole over the heart so it was thrown in the bin. There was no sense letting anyone else know there was a vampire killer around. They were unsure if they would get in trouble for it.

After washing, Xander headed into the back shed. He got out some bits of wood and tools. An hour later he had half a dozen stakes of various sizes. He put one of the smaller stakes into his sock, under his jeans. It was quite uncomfortable and he decided that he needed some sort of holster or sheath for it.

They had also come up with a couple of ideas about training. There was one idea that Xander was dreading, but he knew it was a good one. After lunch he had to talk to his father. It was a good bet his father would be up by then.

Tony Harris was an alcoholic and a bad father. He had never hit his wife or son but he was very neglectful. It was a big surprise when his son came to talk to him.

Xander said, "Dad my friend Jesse was killed the other day. They said a gang on PCP killed him. Can you teach me to fight and to shoot please? I don't want to die if they attack me."

Tony stared at his son. He saw something in Alexander's face that took him back almost 30 years. The look on his son's face was the same one he saw on certain other men who were in the army with him. They were the ones who volunteered for Vietnam. Tony had been drafted and what happened in that war was the cause of his drinking.

Tony was lost in his memories of violence and bloodshed. He remembered shooting and killing the enemy. He remembered the ambushes. He remembered the pain of being shot and blown up. He remembered seeing his friends blown apart. He remembered the rage he felt when his friends were killed in front of him.

Tony came out of his memories and looked at his son again. There was a bruise forming on his jaw. He said, "Son, where did you get that bruise on your face?" Xander answered, "Willow and I ran into a gang banger last night. We managed to get away. We were lucky there was only one of them."

Tony rubbed the bridge of his nose. There were many emotions running through him. Rage that someone would hit his son. Fear that his son would be killed or end up like him. There was uncertainty because he really didn't know his son. To top it all off, he had a rotten hang over.

Tony said, "Ok. Next Saturday your uncle Rory and I will teach you to shoot and to fight. Now go and make sure that bruise is looked after." Xander beamed at him and said, "Thanks dad, this really means a lot."

When Xander left Tony just sat there, thinking. Had he done the right thing? Could he teach his son to fight, to kill if necessary? How would his son cope? Would he be like the volunteers or would he be like him? Some arsehole gang member had already taken his sons innocence. Tony had to make sure he didn't lose his life. There was no way he could live with himself if his son died because he failed to act. Tony knew what it was like to lose a friend because you froze, you never got past it. The rage was immediate, but the guilt lasted a life time.

*****

A short while later Willow showed up. After giving her some stakes, they walked to the public library, discussing their plans as they went. Willow said, "I did a lot of research on the net this morning and have lots of ideas on how we can train. Before we get into it, we need to know where we want to end up. What direction do we want our training to go? The best way to figure this out is to emulate someone we aspire to be like. Who do we know that could fight vampires and win?"

Xander immediately started to rattle off names, "Drizzt Do'Urden, Elminster, any big mage, Belgarion, any big sorcerer, Duncan Macleod, Luke Skywalker…" Willow cut him off with a cuff on the arm.

She rebuked, "Not fantasy Xander, real life! Who do we know from our world who could fight and beat vampires?" This stumped the young male. He put on his thoughtful face and kept it on.

Willow waited patiently for him to finish. She watched closely for steam coming from his ears, but there was none so far. Xander finally said, "From our current time I would say Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, martial arts masters, possibly some navy seals or other well trained soldiers and anyone who is really good with a katana or other swords. If we look at previous generations, Wong Fei Hong, other massive Kung Fu masters, Joan of Arc, maybe some Templars, Miyomato Musashi, samurai, ninjas, robin hood style archers, and pretty much any really good warriors from the past."

Willow nodded and said, "I came up with a lot of the same people. We don't know yet if modern day weaponry will even affect vampires. Oh hey, did you ask your dad?"

Xander grinned and said, "Yeppers I sure did. He said next weekend him and uncle Rory will teach me how to fight and shoot. Did you want me to ask if you can come along too?"

Willow sighed and said, "I already asked my parents and they said I couldn't learn from your dad. They don't trust him. So listen here mister. You will teach me everything he teaches you, you hear?"

Xander sent her a mock salute, "Ma'am, yes ma'am! I got no problem with that. But we do have a problem and it's a doozy. Where will we get the guns, bullets and place for me to teach you to shoot? I don't know if I can take any of dad's guns? He keeps them locked up."

Willow frowned in thought and rattled off, "To take the guns, you would have to pick the lock or copy his key. But you would have to replace the bullets as well. We aren't old enough to buy our own guns or bullets. We don't know how to make our own guns either, so that's out. A place to learn to shoot would be anywhere in the desert. We could ride our bikes there. Does your bike still work?"

Xander smiled at the Willow babble and replied, "Wills, my bike is made for ten year olds. It is too small for me and in bad condition. Besides you know I ride a skateboard now. The desert idea would have worked though. Being able to pick locks would be cool to know. But the idea of making my own weapon sounds awesome. I want to make a katana!"

Willow grinned at him and said, "You do that mister. Just don't forget to make me one too. I will be computer girl and you will be weapons maker boy. I know I will be research girl too, but you mister will be reading knowledge books as well. Now I don't want to hear any complaints from you. There is too much to learn for you not to open a real book."

Xander nodded and said, "No worries computer girl. If it's a weapon smith you want, then I'm your guy. You know I like reading. Although the idea of reading an educational book gives me the wiggins, I am willing to do it. So why don't we hit this torture place better known as a library and get started."

Willow looked at her friend in shock. He was agreeing to learn something? This was a sure sign of the apocalypse! She hesitated and finally said, "That's great Xander, but we need to do something else too." He looked at her with trepidation and she continued, "We will need to get some more money too. We have to pay for training gear, books, a new bike for you, weapons or weapon making material and maybe even lessons. Basically, we need to get a job each."

Xander stopped walking. He stared at her with horror in his eyes. He couldn't believe she would swear like that. How dare she hit him with the J word? That was really hitting below the belt. He huffed and harrumphed in indignation. As bad as what she did was, there was something even worse. He couldn't fault her logic. Oh this was so of the bad! The Xan man was going to join the work force. He shuddered in terror.

Willow graciously allowed him to suffer at the thought of working before she interrupted him. "So back to the earlier point, we need to come up with our direction. We have a list of people who could take out vampires, now we just need to figure out who we want to be like. Personally I think a combination would be best."

Xander recovered slowly and refocused on Willows comments. He said, "I agree totally. If we are the size and strength of Arnold, with Bruce's speed and strength, that would be kick arse. Did you know Bruce was so fast he could punch in between the frames of a movie camera? That's like a full punch in a tenth of a second. Come to think of it, I reckon most martial arts masters are pretty fast too. If we add in Jet's form and flow, that would be great. Yeah I reckon Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Lee and Jet Li are the direction I want to go in."

Willow responded, "Yeah, that would totally work. If bullets work on vampires, then maybe some soldier training at some point. Navy Seals or Special Forces are meant to be the best. Maybe we had better make a list of exactly what we need to do."

The public library was a building neither had been in before. It was bigger than they had imagined. It was also mostly empty. They had no trouble joining up and were soon at a desk with pen and paper in from of them. The 'To Do' list took shape as follows:-

Get the facts about vampires. Their strengths, weaknesses, characteristics and behaviour. Find what works and what doesn't.

Learn how to fight, some type of martial arts that has swords or something to simulate a stake.

Get in shape. Increase size, strength, speed and flexibility.

Find a way to get tougher or get some armour to wear.

Make money to pay for training, weapons and Twinkies.

Learn about making weapons and then make them.

Once trained and armed with weapons and knowledge, hunt the vampires down and kill them.

They borrowed the maximum of ten books each from the library. They had books on martial arts, fitness, training, yoga, bodybuilding, guns and weapons. Willow also grabbed some books on meditation, gymnastics and a book called Superlearning. Xander also grabbed some books on metallurgy, metal work, military tactics and gun smithing.

Aside from the books they borrowed, they also looked at what else the library had to offer. There were videos on aerobics, tai chi and yoga. Not to mention a few comedy shows like Bill Cosby and Ben Elton. There were also aerial photographs and maps of the whole town. They couldn't borrow these, but they did manage to order their own copies, one each. It would cost two weeks allowance, but it was worth it. Knowing where to find the enemy was very important.

On the way back from the library they swung by the closest shopping mall. After stopping at a bank auto teller they made a beeline for the fruit and vegetable shop. Using a weeks worth of pocket money they bought the next weapon in their vampire arsenal, four rings of garlic. They would hang one on each doorway and window of their bedrooms. That should make it safe to sleep at night.

When they got back to Willows place they decided to start their training. They began with a run to try and get fit then continued for strength with push ups, sit ups, chin ups or rather chin up, and squats. It wasn't much but it was all they could think of at the moment, without learning more. After the workout, they started reading their books

*****

On Sunday Xander took himself off to church. His official religion was Catholic, but his family had never been into the church thing. Willow was Jewish so she would only go on special occasions, like funerals. After recent events, he just had to go. He needed to talk to someone about the crap that went down as well as test some theories.

He showed up around two o'clock in the afternoon, when he was pretty sure there were no services on. According to the sign out the front he was right. Upon entering he had a good look around. It was a typical church, stained glass windows, vaulted ceiling, hanging lights, rows of pews on each side, pulpits, organs and the main attraction - two bowls of holy water.

In most of the vampire stories he had read, holy water and crosses were weapons to be used. There was the possibility that it was a holy symbol, not just a cross, but he couldn't be sure. Either way, he was going to try and get his hands on some. Not wanting to tempt a lightning bolt striking him down for stealing, Alexander went looking for a priest.

As he went through the empty church he spied a double booth down the back right of the church. There was a light on above one booth. As he got closer he read the sign which said, 'Confessional.' He stepped up the lightless booth and went inside.

It was dark inside, but a faint ceiling light turned on when he shut the door. There was a chair and a sliding panel leading to the other booth. Sitting down, he opened the panel and said, "Hello. I'm looking for a priest. I hope there's one in there."

A male voice came from the other booth, "Yes my son, I am a priest. Do you have something to confess?" Xander answered, "Um, I don't know how this works I have never been here before. Actually I don't know if I have ever been in a church. I am Catholic though."

The priest said, "Well, most Catholics are christened when they are babies, so there is a good chance you came to a church then. Tell me my son, why have you come now, after all this time?" Xander answered, "My best friend was killed this week. Then everything got really weird. I mean Twilight Zone weird."

Over in his booth, the priest shifted to get more comfortable. This was a heavy subject and would need to be handled delicately. He said, "I'm sorry for your loss my son. I shall pray for your friend. What was his name?" Xander answered, "Jesse. His name was Jesse McNally."

The priest said, "Why don't you tell me about your friend, my son?" Xander replied, "They said he was killed by gang members on PCP. That happened on Thursday. His funeral was Friday."

The priest started to get a bad feeling about this. He knew what the code, gang members on PCP, really meant. Xander continued, "My other best friend, Willow and me were sitting Shiva for him Friday night. Willow is Jewish and it was important to her."

The priest said, "I know the practice of sitting Shiva. It is similar to a wake in our religion, similar but different. What happened next, my son?" As he asked this, a feeling of dread settled in his stomach.

Xander took a deep breath and answered, "Around midnight Jesse came out of his grave and attacked us. I think he was a vampire. We killed him." The priest exclaimed, "OH MY!"

The dread feeling in the priest's stomach turned into shock. He was getting ready to hear about someone's death, possibly this Willow's death. He never expected to hear anyone say they killed a vampire just like that. Even the churches own teams would be hard pressed to kill a vampire with just two of them. He said in an excited voice, "Wow. That's just wow."

Xander said, "We were very lucky pops. But, the thing is, you aren't telling me I'm crazy or there is no such thing as vampires. That leads me to believe you know about them. Care to explain?" The end was said in a very cold tone of voice.

The priest gulped and got a bit worried. This chat had turned from heavy to scary very quickly. The priest said, "It's Father Abrahams or just Father, not pops, my son. I do indeed know about vampires. I was warned before I came to this parish."

Continuing in the same cold voice, Xander said, "Why haven't you warned anyone? If you had Jesse might still be alive!" His voice was starting to crack and a rage was building in him. Violence was looming imminently.

Father Abrahams quickly said, "Anyone who says anything is killed. The last two priests here have warned their congregations about vampires and demons. They disappeared within days. Their heads were sent to the Vatican. Their bodies were never recovered. I was warned to keep my mouth shut and my head down."

Xander said, "Cruddy crapola! That just plain sucks. I suspect dozens of people are dying each year and the good guys are being killed off. Why doesn't the Pope send an army of whoever in here to set things right? And just what do you mean by demons?"

Father Abrahams responded, "There has been a bit of a problem in that regard. The Catholic Church does have teams of vampire slayers. The problem is that all but one team has been killed in the last few years. We are struggling to rebuild the teams and have sent out inexperienced or fewer numbers and it has been disastrous. The teams are being slaughtered. One of the ancient vampires was behind it all, we did manage to kill him, but we are still losing badly. As for demons, well they exist. There are many different demons around in a myriad of forms."

Xander was stunned. Two of his and Willow's theories had just turned into facts. Jesse was actually a vampire and they get more powerful as they age. Oh and there were actual demons too. It seems like he and Willow had stumbled upon a war. What was even worse is the good guys were losing. He said, "That is a heck of a lot to digest father. But I congratulate you on your answer. Of course this brings up more questions. For starters, how do you know all this?"

Father Abraham relaxed a bit as the young man's voice lost its rage. He said, "Since I am stationed here on the Hellmouth I need to know these things. The fact that I have no back up makes my position even more precarious. I have to be careful to stay alive and I can't do that if I'm kept in the dark. I'm glad that my superiors see fit to keep me illuminated."

Xander asked the obvious question, "What is a Hellmouth? Because if it is what I think it is, then I need to change my underwear." Father Abrahams chuckled briefly and answered, "Yes it is indeed what you think it is. Fortunately it is not open at the moment. Somewhere in the town of Sunnydale is a portal to a plane of hell."

Xander was regretting coming here now. His Twilight Zone thoughts went out the back door and he was fast approaching A Nightmare On Elm Street. He said, "So how is it that the Catholic Church only sends one priest who has to keep his head down, to sit on a Hellmouth? Were you bad or something? Are they trying to get rid of you? Actually, why are you telling me all this? Won't you get killed for it? Hang on; will I get killed for it?"

Father Abrahams said, "Those are some excellent questions my son. I was sent here to keep an eye on things and if there are signs of things going down the tube, I call for back up. I know how to keep my head down and I know what to look for. So no, they aren't trying to kill me, they are trying to keep others alive. As long as we are in the confessional, no one can scry or eavesdrop on us. So as long as you keep this quiet, we are safe. Well, safe from that particular threat I should say. As for why I am telling you this; first, you asked; second, you actually killed a vampire; third, the more you know, the more precautions you can take to stay alive."

Xander digested this then said, "Ok fair enough. I will definitely be using this confessional thing again. I have a lot of thinking to do now father. Two quick questions before I go. Do crosses and holy water work on vampires and can I get some please?"

Father Abrahams replied, "Yes they both work. Crosses can be used to repel vampires or burn them by touch. Holy water burns them like strong acid. I will give you all the holy water you ask for. As for a cross, normally we sell them, but considering you have killed one of the undead, you can have one for free."

Xander said, "Thank you father, that means a lot to me. Can crosses be used by anyone? My friend Willow is Jewish, so will they work for her? Or should she use the Jewish cross like thingy?"

Father Abraham said, "Yes crosses can be used by anyone and their mere touch will burn vampires. In order to repel them though, you need to have faith. So that usually means you need to be Catholic or at least a Christian religion. As for the Jewish Star Of David, that won't work like a cross. However the Jewish religion has their own way to defeat vampires and demons. King Solomon was considered the bane of all demons. I heard rumours of a Seal of Solomon that could work against vampires, but I can't say with any certainty."

Xander finished up with father Abrahams and left with a silver cross around his neck and 2 water bottles of holy water in his hands. He needed to digest what he had heard and speak to Willow but he would definitely be back. It was funny, he came to the church to feel better but now he actually felt worse. He really needed a Twinkie.

*****

When Xander left St John's church, he headed straight for Willows place. Upon arrival he found Willow nose in a book. When he entered her room, she 'eeped,' and grabbed one of the stakes he gave her. Upon seeing him, she glared and said, "Xander you poopyhead! Don't you know how to knock? Hey you got the holy water eh?"

Xander laughed then saw she still had her stake in hand and quieted. He said, "Yeppers got the holy water right here. Wanna do me a favour and point that somewhere else?" He gestured towards the stake.

The stake was dropped as Willow bounded off her bed and grabbed a bottle of holy water. She whacked him on the chest and said, "I am dangerous armed girl now buster. No sneaking up on me like that. So how was church?"

Xander shut the door and filled her in. Willow was quiet after he finished. She sat there for a while just holding the bottle of holy water. She finally said softly, "I'm scared Xander. First it was vampires now demons, magic and a Hellmouth. What the heck are we meant to do? There is nowhere safe anymore."

Moving over to her, Xander pulled Willow into a hug. He held for her a while then did what he was best at, used humour to change the mood. He said, "You know what we need? We need a lightsaber and blaster each. We drive around here in a Whitestar and if any Hellmouth demon pops up we blow it away."

Willow cracked a smile and said, "Hand them over then. They would be good to have but where do we get them? No Xander, they don't exist. Face it; we live in a town that is home to the Hellmouth! It's just us two. You even said they good guys were getting smashed. What hope do we have?"

What Willow said was pretty much exactly what Xander thought. All in all, they were both very overwhelmed. What could two teenagers do in the big bad world they found themselves in? Then it hit him…

He said, "I'll tell you what we can do, we can kill vampires, as evidenced by Friday night. We were untrained, unarmed, surprised, under prepared and emotionally drained. With all that going against us, we did something that most of the church's slayers couldn't do. We killed a vampire. Stop selling us short. Oh and with regards to no lightsaber's being around, then you just need to make two. I'll take mine with a blue blade please."

Willow smiled at the old argument between them. She also considered what he said. Finally she said, "You are right Xander." At this point Xander jumped up and did the happy dance. Willow couldn't help but laugh at his antics.

When he settled down she continued, "We did manage what seems to be impossible but a lot of it was luck. With proper preparations, we should be able to take out more vampires. I'll have you know that the green lightsaber blade is the only one to use. If I make, no when I make two, I will make them in green. If you don't like it, don't use it."

Xander smirked and retorted, "Are you serious? Blue is so much better than green. Both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker used a blue blade. Only Luke made a green blade during Jedi. Now what are we going to do with the information I just found out? The only thing I can think of is getting a Supersoaker each and spraying vamps with holy water."

Willow grinned at that, it was a very good idea. She said, "Ok so we get lots of holy water from your priest then. Maybe take a bag with bottles of water in it when you visit him next. I will look at the Jewish books on the net. If only we had a synagogue in this town. You need to find out from priesty man all about vampires. We also need to know what demons are in the area and the facts about them. Maybe he has some books on them. Hey, do you think he will tell you about the slayer teams they have? Ooh, what about the training they do, maybe we could do that."

Xander knew Willow was alright as soon as she went into babble mode. He had just the thing to make her feel even better. He said, "Why don't you make a list of questions I can take him next week?

Willow's face brightened immensely and she went straight to her computer. She said, "Oh hey, I thought of something else today. Remember the grave Jesse came out of, how it was all over the place and disturbed like? I reckon that happens whenever a vampire breaks out of them. That would mean the people who look after the graveyards would have to know something was up."

Xander had to agree with her; that definitely sounded fishy. The more he thought about things, the more it looked like the people in charge were dodgy. Right then he had a thought. He exclaimed, "Crap, crud and Cordelia! Hey Wills, what if it isn't people being dodgy, but some kind of magic? I mean we don't know what magic can do or even what effect a Hellmouth can have. We lived in this town our whole life and never knew what was going on. Were we really stupid or just blind? I know we weren't dodgy, but maybe we were affected by something?"

The typing at the computer stopped when Xander swore. He did have a point, there might be more going on than they realised. They were really in the dark here. Willow really hated not knowing something, it made her feel ignorant and that could not be tolerated. She said matter-of-factly, "I guess we can add some questions about Hellmouth's and magic to the priest list."

*****

When Monday arrived Xander and Willow checked out the school library. It was not a very helpful place though. Willow did manage to find some books to aid her computer skills, but not much else. Xander found some books about engineering and materials, metalwork and construction. There was nothing they could use for training or fighting.

Over the course of the next week, there were many changes to the lives of Willow and Xander. There was one thing they didn't consider though. The training they did made them sore. They had to start off really light in most areas, but it still hurt like the dickens. They were walking around in agony for the first two days, and then it slowly eased over the week. The strange thing was, the pain felt kind of good. Every ache reminded them of the good they did to their bodies.

They had finished off each of their books and now had a pretty good idea of what they were going to do. The biggest change, at least in Willows mind was Xander. He decided he was only going to answer to Alexander from now on. He said that Xander was a child, but Alexander was someone who had killed. Xander was innocent but Alexander looked at the world with open eyes. It caused her to insist he call her Willow from now on.

They also both had jobs now. Sure a paper run in the morning wasn't much, but it was something. It sure as heck beat their allowance. In fact when added together, their income was quite reasonable. It also had the added benefit of being a form of training. They each had a different circuit to cover, but were roughly the same length. It was meant to take 90 minutes to do. They would start off walking and slowly increase it to a run as they got fitter. When the time came to run, they would ditch the cart and carry the papers in a large backpack. There was one other added bonus they got from the paper run, they could check the obituaries. They could see who dies, where they were being buried, how and where they were killed.

They also discovered something that threw a big spanner in their plans. They were too young to safely do real weight training. Their plans to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Corey Everson suffered major set backs. All they could do was light weight training, any heavier before they turned 16 could stunt their growth and give them joint problems. They basically had to keep the repetitions above 30 for each set and avoid any significant weight in squats.

Alexander managed to find his dads old weight bench, barbells and dumbbells in the basement. Once they were cleaned thoroughly, they put them to work. The program they used was only a beginner's one from the body building book. It was amazing how good they felt after each workout. It was a chilled out and contented feeling that lasted for hours.

Willow had found a martial arts style for them to learn on the net. It was very strange that Sunnydale didn't have a martial arts dojo or even a boxing gym, so they had to learn on their own. She picked Jow Ga Kung Fu for them to learn. It had several points which made it worthwhile. First, there were videos they could buy that showed the lessons. Second, the style had been designed to defeat several other Kung Fu styles. Third, it had many different weapons they could learn, including, swords, daggers and staves. Very cool! Fourth the style had a long curriculum. It had 18 levels before black belt and a further 36 until you were considered a master of the style. That had to mean it was really good, right?

Until they bought the video's they were stuck with the martial arts book. They were able to practice basic punches and blocks, knees and elbows, and a couple of kicks. They used Alexander's backyard after school since he had the weight bench in the basement. It didn't work too well, but they made the most of it. After the first session, Willow hit the net and found some martial arts supplier stores. There were heaps of pads and gloves and protective devices. What really drew her in was the large array of weapons for sale. Most of them were training weapons or for display, but there were a few that were very expensive and meant to be real.

There were also mirrors for sale on the web page. This made her stop and think. A mirror would be really helpful for seeing what you look like doing the techniques. They could even use the mirror in Alexander's basement to ensure they were doing weights properly. Right then Willow had a light bulb moment. If she had a video camera she could have Alexander film her doing the techniques and then compare it to the instructional video. It would make things so much easier to learn, especially if they were without a real life instructor.

After finishing and discussing the nutrition book, they had a look at what was in their respective fridges and cupboards. Willow's had some pretty decent stuff but Alexander's was atrocious. With that in mind, he offered to do the grocery shopping instead of his mother. Boy did that make her day; she could spend the extra time sitting down with her feet up having a Chardonnay.

They also had a good hard look at what they ate from the school cafeteria. There were some decent foods there, but half of what they served was utter rubbish. So some of the time they would have to take a packed lunch from home. They also introduced vitamin supplements into their diet and cut out junk food and soft drinks. This was especially hard on Alexander, because of his Twinkie and donut addiction. Going by what the body builders did, they would have one day a week where they could eat rubbish. On that day, boy would they ever indulge!

Alexander was able to change one of his class electives, since it was only the second week in the school year. He ditched history and took up auto shop. It would work well with one of his other electives, metal work. These two classes would help him attain and practice the skills for weapon smithing. He was also going to see if he could do some work at his uncle Rory's garage and junk yard. There were heaps of old cars and bikes there for him to practice on.

The true gem they found was the Superlearning book. It had so many things they could use. There were packages of at home courses that could teach you a language fully in two months. Willow was keen on doing this, but Alexander wasn't going to bother. It even had special music to help you to learn anything faster. Speed reading was something they were both going to learn. Meditation and hypnosis could be used to accelerate and improve their fighting skills. Visualisation could be used to help cement what Kung Fu they learned and also improve their skills. There were even memory exercises that could lead to a photographic memory. Even Alexander saw the benefit of this for school and their extra curricular activities, he might even pass math.

Their new training program consisted of aerobic exercise, the paper run, in the morning followed by a light yoga routine to warm down. The afternoon would be for martial arts, weight training and a longer yoga routine. In the evening they would do their homework, mental exercises and meditation. Willow wrote their program based off another book she borrowed, Time Management For Dummies. The weekend is when they would practice speed reading, language skills for willow and shooting for Alexander.

With this program there wasn't much time left for goofing off and stuff. In Willow's mind living was worth the cost, not to mention she absolutely loved learning new things. Alexander used to goof off, read and play games because he didn't have a purpose. He always longed to live in a world where he could fight the forces of darkness for the good of mankind. He finally got his wish and no longer needed to escape to reading books where that happens.

*****

The weekend finally arrived and with it, Alexanders first fighting and shooting lesson with his father and uncle Rory. On one hand he was looking forward to learning these new skills but on the other hand he was apprehensive about spending time with his father. Rory was pretty cool and Alexander actually liked him.

Tony drove with Alexander to pick up Rory and then they all headed out to the desert. Apparently Rory knew a place they could shoot without any problems. The journey was pretty quiet, with only minimal pleasantries exchanged. When they finally got there they all pilled out of the car, two duffel bags being carried by the adults.

Tony stood in front of his son, beside his brother Rory. The time had come, time to teach Alexander to survive and if necessary to kill. He said, "Ok before we start, we need to establish the proper mindset. That means there are some rules that need to be followed. The first rule about a fight is to survive. No matter what, you live. You are the only one who matters in a fight, so look after yourself. The best method is to avoid a fight, so you run first. If you absolutely have to fight and you can't avoid it, then follow the second rule, win!"

Tony started to pace back and forth. He continued, "Some people will carry on about fighting fair, but that's a load of horse shit. Someone always has an advantage in a fight. You just make sure it's you! Be bigger, stronger, faster, better trained, sneakier, cheat if you have to, have numbers on your side, ambush the bastard, be armed, do whatever it takes but win. If he has a knife, you have a gun. If they have a gun, you have a bigger gun or a car. If they have a car, you have a tank or a plane. You see what I mean?" The last question was rhetorical, since Tony was looking into the distance.

He stopped pacing and sighed. He said, "Now this isn't a war, so there are laws and all that shit. Live first, win second, worry about the law third. If memory serves, self defence has limits. It might not be the best if some kid comes up to you and you shoot him. That's kind of overkill. If someone is untrained you can't damage them too much. If there are more than one or if they are armed, you can go to town on them. You see, if they are armed and use their weapons against you, that means they are trying to kill you. When that happens, you have much more leeway."

The pacing started again. Tony said, "Now if you run into those arseholes that got your friend and can't get away, then go straight for the kill. They won't feel anything like a normal person would. PCP means they don't feel pain and the think they are invincible. If it's just a normal fight, you take them down as quickly as possible. Only the really skilled can take someone down without hurting them, so don't worry about that."

"Basically in a fight, you neutralise the threat as fast as possible. Now the mechanics of a fight vary a lot. There are many different techniques, some lethal, some crippling and some pain inducing. A fight to the death is not like in the movies. You don't go around punching each other in the head until one falls down. If you can, you hit them once and that's it, dead. If it's not a fight to the death, you can use non lethal techniques."

Tony stopped once again and said, "We have three different areas to go through, so pay attention. There are unarmed fighting, knife fighting and shooting to go through. Each area has places you want to aim for. For example you might shoot someone in the chest, but wouldn't punch them there. You might cut someone in the throat with a knife, but it would be better to shoot them in the head."

The next few of hours were very intense. Alexander learnt some really nasty fighting techniques that were not at all like he imagined. The knife work was scary, but also had other applications. Alexander was thinking in terms of a stake in many instances. If only a stake could slice as well as poke, that would be great.

The shooting side of things was a whole new ballgame. There were heaps of safety rules to go through before he was even allowed to pick up a bullet let alone a gun. There were three guns that he was introduced to, a colt M1911 pistol, an M16 assault rifle and the Winchester Model 70 hunting rifle. He was shown how to assemble, disassemble and clean each gun. He also got a chance to shoot a magazine worth of bullets from each. It was actually a lot of fun.

After they finished shooting they cleaned the guns, collected the casings and left. After a drive through at McDonalds they headed back to Rory's place. Rory lived out the back of his business. It was mechanic shop and junkyard.

While Alexander was making knives and fooling around with motor bikes, Tony and Rory got on the piss. In no time at all they were sitting in Rory's lounge room, a couple of coldies in their hands. The first can of beer barely even touched the sides, before they were on to can number two.

Rory nursed his second beer and said to his bro, "I think that went well. Alex seemed to really get into it and even I learnt a thing or two, myself. Of course shooting is always a fun thing to do. He seemed to enjoy himself."

Tony was struggling with the whole thing. Did he make the right choice to teach Alexander? Could he handle it if anything happened to his son? Would Alexander handle walking the same path as he did? He finally said, "I don't know if it was the right thing to do? He is so young to have to deal with this sort of stuff."

Rory returned, "You made the right choice, no two ways about it. Those dickwad gang bangers already put him in the shit. They killed his friend and one even attacked him and his friend Willow. Remember what dad told us when he taught us to shoot? It is better to know and not need than to need and not know. He needed and didn't know. He was lucky to get away. So yes you are doing the right thing in teaching him."

Tony persisted, "I've seen war and killing, you haven't bro. It's so much to deal with. How could he ever cope with violence, death and killing? It's just too much."

Knowing this was a very tricky subject with his bro Rory spoke carefully, "He has encountered violence during that attack. He has encountered death with the loss of Jesse. Hopefully he won't ever have to kill. You were right, if it comes down to it, better them than him. Look at his first response to the death and the attack. He came straight to you to learn how to defend himself. I also think he wants to defend Willow."

Tony couldn't fault his logic. Alexander needed to be able to defend himself. He didn't know it, but he was doing what every decent parent did, worry about his kid. He said, "He seemed to handle the attack and death ok. I hope he isn't feeling guilty about Jesse. I do reckon he is trying to protect Willow. That part is all fine with me, it's what might happen if he meets any gang bangers again I am scared about."

Rory agreed, "Me too bro, me too. All we can do is give him the tools and deal with whatever comes up when it does. Do you think talking to him about what has happened might help? Or maybe getting someone else to talk to him? It might help him deal with what has happened and what might happen."

That threw Tony for a loop. He had once been offered a shrink back in the early 70s, but told the guy where to get off. After more than 20 years on the piss, he now wondered if that might have been a mistake. He said, "Yeah that might be an idea. Maybe we can bring it up next weekend? He might not go for it, but maybe he can chat to us."

Rory nodded and said, "I will check out who is around and get some recommendations. Now tell me bro, did you enjoy today? You know spending time with me and Alex? Actually talking to your son?" Tony nodded his head ruefully and said, "Yeah, I did."

It was getting close to sunset when Alexander noticed the time. He did not want to be caught out after dark if he could help it. He quickly tidied up and went to find his dad. He found him passed out on Rory's lounge, snoring. Rory noticed Alexander come in and said, "Today was a good day. I haven't seen your dad like that for many years. He actually had fun today and so did I."

Alexander was flabbergasted. His father had enjoyed spending time with him? This was unheard of. His father had never spent much time with him even when he was a small child. Alexander realised that he had really enjoyed himself today too. He said, "Better write this down in the diary. I enjoyed myself as well. Should we wake him up?"

Rory smiled and said, "Nah better let him sleep. He hit the cans like a mongrel, brought up lots of memories today did. Take the car and drive home. I will drop him off tomorrow."

Still out of it, Alexander didn't fully register what was said. He turned to leave before it hit him. He swung back and said, "I can't drive Unc. I'm too young remember." Rory just smirked at him and said, "I guess we will have to add driving lessons in next weekend then eh?"

Alexander grinned at him and said, "Cool! That would be so awesome. Thanks Unc. Do you suppose we might include motorbikes in that lesson? Please?" Rory grinned openly at him and replied, "I see you have the Harris gene as well. It would be a crime not to. You'll be fanging along on two wheels in no time."

With a whoop and a yelled, 'thankyou,' Alexander left. Still grinning and happy, he started for home. As the shadows lengthened, he remembered what the night life was like in this town. So he picked up his heels and tore off down the street.

By the time he made it home the street lights had just come on. He was safe, relatively. Once he had caught his breath he grabbed some paper and wrote down all he had learned today. He also added what little he had learnt from the martial arts book as well. He was going to document every technique he learned in fighting, so he could practice it all and not forget anything. This stuff was going to be drilled over and over until it was second nature to him. Also since he had to teach Willow he needed to remember it all.

*****

The next day Alexander visited Father Abraham again. It was decided that these visits would be a weekly thing. On the outside it appeared that Alexander was reconnecting with the church after Jesse's death. On the inside, it was part information gathering and part just having someone else to talk too about what goes bump in the night.

After a very good chat that lasted about half an hour, Alexander left the church feeling much better than the week before. Some questions were answered but they in turn brought up some new ones. There was a definite direction gained from the information, unfortunately it meant new stuff to learn. Possibly the most important, they chatted about Jesse's death, turning and how Alexander felt about it all.

So it was with a backpack full of holy water bottles and a page with questions answered, Alexander showed up at Willows house. He was ushered inside the house and into her room with almost the same speed as her famous babbling. Before she could open her mouth, he struck a pained pose and put a grimace on his face. Her face fell and she quietly asked, "What went wrong?"

Alexander shrugged off his backpack, placing it on the floor. He ran a hand through his hair and said, "Tragedy has struck! Garlic doesn't work on vampires." He grabbed her by the shoulders and looked intently into her eyes. He continued, "Do you know what this means? We wasted a weeks worth of allowance each! We could have used the money to buy Twinkies." He burst into laugher when he finished.

She pushed him off with a whack to the chest. Hands on hips she glared, "Don't do that to me mister. It isn't that funny. Hey stop laughing at me! Want me to hit you again? That's better. No more making me think it's really bad when it's only a little bad. No giving me more Wiggins when I already have them. Don't you forget, Twinkies are only for Sundays!" She finished off folding her arms over her chest and standing imperiously.

Alexander smirked at her, licked the top of his index finger and motioned a one in the air. He back-pedalled in a hurry as Willow tried to whack him again. Deciding discretion was the better part of valour, he changed the subject. "So I got the Holy water, all six litres of it. We also went through the list of questions you printed. Now take a seat and I will fill you in."

As Alexander was organising himself, sitting on her bed, he missed the blush that popped up on Willow's face. She was thinking different things about Alexander filling her in, that were quite naughty in nature. Nevertheless she sat at her desk and eagerly awaited the new facts.

Alexander grinned at her and said, "To start with the good Father was very impressed with one of our ideas. Well he was, once I explained it to him. It appears that he had no idea what a Supersoaker was. I must say, he sounded quite vicious once he got it. He called it a rapid delivery of divine fury upon a demonic spawn. Quite poetic if I must say."

There was much giggling to be heard from the red headed teenager. This priest sounded like quite a character, for a priest that is. Getting back on track she said impatiently, "Come on, what else? If you are going to drag it out, then just give me the list."

Alexander hugged the list to his chest saying, "My precious! No, mine, mine! Behave Willow and all will be revealed. I asked him what he knew about vampires and he gave me a lot of answers. So crank up that computer of yours and add these to the list."

Willow moved at the speed of light, relatively, and was soon ready to go. Alexander continued, "Ok first up, vampires need to be invited into your home before they can enter. If it's not a home, then its open slather. Oh and vampires can change back from their fangy Klingon face. So you gotta be real careful and never actually invite anyone into your home."

Moving on to the next point, Alexander said, "He didn't know the exact story with how much tougher, faster or stronger they are, but he did know they were more so than humans. He isn't an expert about vampires, but rather had been briefed about them before he came here. Oh and he confirmed that sunlight burns then kills vampires. They don't like fire much either. It has to be a serious fire like a flame thrower, not just a match or lighter."

Pausing in her typing, Willow turned to Alexander. She said, "Looks like you need to add flame thrower to our weapons list then." She was surprised at his wince until he said, "There is so much more we need to learn, but I will get to that soon."

He shook the paper in a self important teacher like way. Then, grinning rakishly said, "He confirmed that vampires get more powerful as they age, although we kind of already knew that. Silver doesn't work on them at all, although it is meant to work on werewolves. Oh they actually exist by the way." He put on a thoughtful air and continued, "If there was a way to control the change, it could be an advantage to be one. From all I have read, admittedly it's fiction; werewolves are much stronger and can regenerate even in their human form."

Willow glared at him. She said, "Those are two very big ifs buster! There will be no tracking down werewolves to get bitten any time soon. We must know everything before hand about them. You never know, they might not be all that great to be. You might not even be able to control the change. Although it sounds like magic and we don't know anything about that yet. So keep their paws off you and especially me."

Holding up his hands in surrender, Alexander said, "No worries friend of mine. Just add it to the research list." Willow flashed him a quick grin. He continued, "Getting bitten by a vampire will not turn you. They have to drain you then give you some of their blood. So the one that turned Jesse actually wanted to turn him, not just feed off him."

There was a quiet moment after the last sentence. Both were lost inside their thoughts and memories. Finally Alexander continued, "Ok so the confirmed ways of killing them are, stake to the heart, enough holy water, enough fire, decapitate them and sunlight. To my way of thinking, we look at Supersoakers, stakes, sharp swords and maybe a flame thrower."

Willow responded, "Yeah that sounds doable to me. What about guns?" Alexander answered, "Apparently guns can hurt them, but not kill them. He doesn't know much about the church's slayer teams at all, but he knows they use guns. Maybe we could shoot out their knees or something. Although they are very fast so that might be hard to do. Perhaps a big enough hollow point could blow their brains out, that might kill them. Or we could try shooting their neck off, but that sounds much harder. Maybe a grenade launcher or tracer rounds could work."

Willow just looked blankly at him. Alexander finally saw one of his own expressions directed back at him. Actually it was the first time Willow had ever sent that look at him before. It felt really good. To know something that Willow didn't was something that he could get used to. Since she always helped him out, he answered, "Grenade launchers are just what the name implies. They fire a grenade that looks like a really big bullet, except it explodes when it hits the target. Now a tracer round is a special type of bullet. It is useful for night fighting, as it lights up when it's fired."

With a nasty grin, Alexander continued, "A tracer round is similar to an incendiary round. They are packed with either magnesium, phosphorus or a combination. When fired, they start their burn. In traditional warfare, they are used at night to sight their targets. However, they can also burn hot enough to go through steel; hence they are often used against tanks. If used against vampires, they should be so much more effective than normal bullets. The best part is how hard it is to put them out. They burn even under water. The only way to put them out is to submerge fully in water and scrape the phosphorous off the body."

Continuing on, in a way that left Willow with an open mouth, Alexander said. "Now exploding bullets were outlawed during the Hague Convention, but I like the idea of using them on the undead or demonic forces. Imagine a grenade but the size of a bullet hitting a vampire's chest or head? Oh yeah, so making with the pain! Since they can't be bought, probably not even on the black market we, sorry I, would have to make them. Now that is going to be a long and expensive project. So maybe for now we should stick to what's available and easier to get. Oh yeah, did you know that silencers don't actually work. Well they do, but not like in the movies. They only drop the noise by 10-20 decibels. That will mean that if we use guns, then it will be heard all over the neighbourhood. That may be good for LA but not so much for Sunnydale. However that magic thing that makes people not notice anything weird might affect guns as well."

Willow was utterly flabbergasted. Did Alexander just give her a lesson on guns and bullets? Did he know something that she didn't? She was completely shocked. It was so totally wow! It was also incredibly hot. She really hoped Alexander didn't see her blush.

Willow, still bright red, said, "That was amazing Alexander. You are the weapon king, the god of guns, and the grand poobah of bullets. I do like the idea of an exploding burning bullet that kills vampires and demons. Since they are so loud, maybe we can use them as a last resort only. Although with all the deaths that occur in this town, we don't hear many painful screams going on. Is a death scream as loud as a bullet? Maybe there is some magic that we can use to our advantage. Hey what did you find out about magic?"

Alexander was back on track now. He said, "Ok I think that covers what I learnt about vampires. As for demons, magic and the Hellmouth, well that's a whole other story. The only magic he knows about could be considered prayers. The Catholic Church uses blessings and prayers to do various different things. Obviously the higher ups or special sections of the church have access or more or different prayers. Considering that we are in this town, he has to be very careful on what he offers us."

Continuing, Alexander said, "He didn't give me any books to look at. I did manage to get some titles out of him. There several unfortunate aspects we have to deal with. The first being they are mostly in different languages. The second is they are prayer type thingies for the Catholic Church, not so good for Jewish Willow. The third is he doesn't know anything about Jewish prayers or magic type stuff. To sum up, we need to research magic, demons and the Hellmouth ourselves, in different languages."

Willow groaned, sighed and said, "Poop! That makes things much harder. I guess I will keep looking for the Jewish version of magic prayers and you take the Catholic version. Either way we both get stuck with other languages. So do you think we should start learning languages now or get the books first?"

Alexander replied, "Well there is one book we can get that is in English, but it's pretty old. It's called Vampyre. It's meant to be the definitive book on those undead suckers. Father Abraham hasn't read it, only heard it mentioned. I did ask him about languages as well as books and it isn't looking good. For the church stuff alone he mentioned Classical Greek, Latin, Aramaic and Ancient Hebrew. He also mentioned ancient Hebrew for you too as well as Yiddish."

Willow smirked at him and said, "So much for you not wanting to learn any languages. You have more to learn than I do." She took up a thoughtful pose, while Alexander stewed a bit. She continued, "I think I know where to look for magic stuff. Each country has their own versions of magic that pop up in myths and legends. Vampires were until a week ago, just another one of these. Even here in the good old US of A, we have many American Indian tales of magic and supernatural events."

Alexander chimed in, "That's right Willow! There are myths from all over the globe, from leprechauns in Ireland to the wizard Lo Pan in China. This is going to suck big time. They all have their own language and that's only modern languages. How the heck are we going to learn all those languages and more importantly should we?"

That last question threw Willow for a loop. She never considered that, it was very scary for her to think about not learning. She thought about it and said, "I think we need to learn some languages, not necessarily all of them. There will be some languages that won't be important, but some will be. We should learn the most important ones first."

Alexander whined, "Do we have to Willow? Couldn't you just write up a computer translation program or something? You know we just plug it into the computer and it spits it out in English?"

This brought a massive smile to her face. She beamed, "That's a fantastic idea. There has to be some translation programs out there already. I can find them and if necessary adapt them for our use. Utter genius Alexander! Maybe I can even get a program for all the languages you know like the Universal Translator they use in Star Trek. That would be so awesome! You still aren't getting out of it though mister. There will be some things, like prayers and spells that require the actual language to be used. Could you imagine stuffing up a syllable because the proper language wasn't known or used? There is no way I am using some Catholic spell or prayer, so that's leaves you. If you want it cast or prayed, then you gotta learn it."

As the babble came to its end, Alexander went from feeling really good at escaping the dreaded learn language thing to almost back where he started. He didn't give up though replying, "Ok Willow that makes sense. The thing we need to remember is, we know next to nothing about magic. Bearing that in mind I suggest we figure out whether it is worth our time or not. We also need to consider just how much we are doing at the moment. We are doing so much right now, might it not be better to spend more time on some of those first, before doing extra stuff?"

Willow had to hand it to him; there were none more tenacious about getting out of work than Alexander. Normally she would call it lazy, but he did have a point. She replied, "Yeah that's right. It's the same principle as cross training. If you do one thing, then you can put in all your time into that and be really good. If you spread yourself around too much, then you get very little progress in any area. Ok, I will write the translation program and we will wait before learning any languages. However, if I'm doing all the work on this, then you better be working on something at the same time."

Alexander quickly agreed and said, "Yeah sure, absolutely Willow. I might as well work at uncle Rory's and see what weapons I can make up. Actually I had an idea for when we are actually hunting the vamps. We need a way to get there and get away fast. Your idea about riding bikes to the desert was a good one, we just use them to high tail it if things get too dangerous. Now I grant you, push bikes aren't that much faster than running, but in a year or so if we used a motorbike, it would be so of the good. So as a long term plan I might see what I can scrounge from Rory's junkyard."

Willow frowned at him, motorbikes were dangerous. Then she thought about it, being caught by a vampire was even worse. Having a way out of a dangerous situation did sound like a good idea. She said, "That might work. Even though they are more dangerous than cars, they should be easier to use for a quick getaway. Ok Alexander, I will work on the computer stuff, you work on the weapons and the wheels. If it turns out that magic is worth it, you are so getting into it!"

There was actually conflict in Alexander when he heard that. On one hand he got out of language and into something more fun. One the other hand casting spells did sound like a blast too. For now though, he needed more information and motivation before he would submit to the torture of learning any other language. Nope, he was happy at the moment, weapons and bikes were going to be great.


	2. Allies And Contacts Part 1

**Human Potential**

AN:- This story starts off in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and will crossover into Stargate. There will be visits to The Adept book series, Vampires, Aliens and Predator movies.

Disclaimer:- I don't own these worlds; I'm just playing in them. I'm not making any money from this story so relax. You might consider it free advertising though.

Summary: - What if Jesse was turned a year earlier? What would happen with no slayer around? Who would step up and stand against the darkness?

Canon differences: - Xander was into fantasy novels and games, not comic books. Willow was likewise into sci-fi. Xander was not physically abused by his parents. The magic system will be a little different and so will the vampires and demons.

Review Responses

Dreagonconsort - Thank you. Since the chapters are quite large at the moment it does take a bit longer for me to post.

Will D - Thank you. I try to write what I like to read.

Heteroclite - To be honest, I don't know what a Mary Sue is? Sure I have seen it mentioned, but what is the definition?

Ojiushadow - Thank you. There is a lot more in my head, I just need to get it out in a readable format.

Psychowing - Thank you. Where I plan to take it often gets changed a little to as I progress through each chapter. I have the grand overview worked out, I'm just filling in the details.

Robin42069 - Thank you. The review flowed just fine. I do plan to have very different personalities, characteristics and relationships than in canon. The next few chapters will illustrate it more fully. I will try to keep the training realistic or at least come up with a semi plausible reason for it.

Chapter 2 – Allies And Contacts - Part One

Beginning of October 1996

It was a warm morning as Alexander walked to school. A month had gone by since he started his exercise regime. It was a gruelling schedule but he was finally getting used to it and his muscles were no longer constantly sore.

The day had started with his paper run and small yoga routine. It really was a great way to start the day, not that he would let Willow hear him say that about work. After his shower and breakfast he was feeling pretty chilled out in the post exercise endorphin release. Hearing a noise, he turned around to see Willow rushing up to him.

She puffed, "Hey Alexander. I found out how Bruce Lee got so strong and fast. He learnt what's called the gongs of kung fu. They are meant to be really advanced techniques that take on average five years for an advanced practitioner to learn. Apparently all masters know at least one." The puffing eventually got the better of the babble.

Alexander exclaimed happily, "All right Willow! High five! Computer girl comes through with the knowledge again. I have so gotta ask, can we learn? Now I mean, or do we have to wait. You know that waiting would totally suck."

Willow caught her breath and grinned at him. She said, "Hold your horses buster, all in good time. Now just listen up because I have a lot to tell you. The way it's meant to go, at least in our kung fu style, is that up until black belt we get a solid basis in a variety of weapons, unarmed forms and meditation. After black belt is where more specialised training comes in. You pick certain weapons or unarmed forms that appeal to you and learn more of those ones. We are also meant to learn about pressure points because Jow Ga is actually a point fighting style. You know, like in acupuncture. You don't just swing wildly at someone, but you aim at their pressure points to really take them out."

Alexander opened his mouth, but got no further. Willow cut in, "Don't interrupt, I'm still going. Somewhere along the line of learning all this you can choose to learn one of the gongs of kung fu. Now these include iron palm, iron claw, iron fist, iron body, leaping, speed, strength, levitation, combat intuition, suspended animation and body heat. Most of those seem pretty self explanatory. The body heat is something that allows you to survive in extreme cold, like the top of Mount Everest. Oh, there is also an advanced technique called Dim Mak, in which you send chi into your opponent and it kills them. I found mention of some other very advanced chi techniques that can strike their target from a distance."

Alexander couldn't help it. He burst out, "I have got to get me some of those! Can you imagine, just touching a vampire and it dies? Hell yeah! Sign me up! Hey we could like float along in the air and blast them from up high. That would be so cool. So where do we start? How do we get like that?"

Willow shared his excitement and said, "Well I did manage to find a book that talk's about iron shirt kung fu. The problem is its fifth in a set of books. The author is called Mantak Chia. He calls what he does, internal alchemy. I really like that name by the way. His first book is called Awaken Healing Energy Through The Tao."

Alexander actually frowned here. He said, "Hang on a sec Willow. Tao, is that like Taoism, the religion? How does that fit in with us being Catholic and Jewish? Would this make us like Taos? If we do that, is it bad?"

Willow sighed and frowned, slightly worried. She said, "I don't know Alexander. I guess we could order the book and see how it is? You could try talking to your priesty friend too." They spent the rest of the walk to school deep in thought.

*****

The following Sunday, Alexander checked in with Father Abrahams and they discussed Kung Fu, Taoism, the Church and Judaism. It turned out that many years ago there were orders of Christian monks who studied unarmed combat. They were able to perform what some might call super human feats. That was worth looking into just on its own. It also suggested that learning from this Mantak dude might be ok.

The final result was inconclusive. Alexander and Willow would buy the book and read it. Alexander would discuss it all with Father Abrahams and receive guidance about the books religious nature. Depending on what they found, Alexander and Willow might put it into practice.

Sitting in Willows bedroom, Alexander had just finished telling Willow what Father Abrahams had said. The young Catholic and the young Jew were feeling better now their immortal souls were not in immediate danger.

Willow heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Well that's a load off my mind. Of course it raises the next question; which gong do we want to learn? Each one has its own advantages but which one would be most beneficial to us?"

Putting on his contemplative face, Alexander pondered the question. Finally he said in a perfectly level voice, "To coin a phrase, let's look at this in a scientific manor. We will go down the list." He dodged an attempted shoulder whack from the redhead who thought he was making fun of her.

Feigning indignation he yelped, "Egad woman. I bruise easily don't you know. I wasn't totally being funny; we should actually go down the list. Hey I do bruise easily. Maybe we should do something about it, like iron body or iron shirt or whatever it's called."

With a huff, Willow said, "Ok buster, I'll let it go this time. If you try to avoid the list my hand of great hurtyness attacks your bruisy shoulder again. Hey if we learnt an iron hand technique my hand really would be of great hurtyness."

Holding up his hands, grinning wildly, Alexander said, "Hold it right there miss. Go no further on pain of tickles. We must keep to the list in order." Willow flushed at hearing her own Willowness used against her. Before she could retort, Alexander said, "Why don't you pull out your list and we can go through it?"

Willow adopted a prim and proper, snooty Cordelia like look and said, "What if I don't have a list for this?" Alexander sent her a levelled look and she crumbled. She said, "Oh fine! You know me too well." She pulled up the file on her computer and turned back to him.

At his questioning look and the waving hand indicating she should start, she said, "First up is, the various iron hand techniques. Like fist, palm and claw. There are probably iron finger techniques too. These basically make your hands into weapons that can pulverise stone, wood and bone. They could be very handy to attack vampires with. It is a close quarter fighting technique and since we will try to use weapons from range, it might not be the best for us now."

Alexander responded, "Well put. I agree that if we can kill them from a distance, why go for close combat. If we knew this, we might be more eager to come into melee range. That would be plain stupid not to mention dangerous. I vote no for those Gongs. What's next?"

Willow made some notes on her computer and said, "Iron body or iron shirt is next. This basically makes your body tougher. Your body can resist damage like a piece of iron. I think I like the sound of that. We know how hard Jesse hit and being able to shrug that off would be awesome."

Alexander got up and went over to look at her computer. He said, "I'm with you on that one. Put it down for the next round. Put strength and speed down for the semi finals as well. Scratch the body heat thingy, I don't see much use for that against vamps. Same goes for suspended animation."

Fingers flying over the keyboard, Willow said, "Yeah I agree. What about combat intuition though, it sounded interesting. It grants you the ability to sense what will happen next in a fight and respond in the most favourable way. That has got to go forward."

Alexander nodded, seeing the benefit. He said, "Yeppers on that one. I would group leaping and levitation together. Both would be useful, but down the track some. In order to use both properly, we would need to be advanced in gymnastics. With our schedule the way it is, I don't think we can make the best use of them."

Willow pouted and said, "But if we learn those, we could be like Luke Skywalker. Imagine flipping around with a dwarf painted green in a backpack on your back. How can we not learn those?"

Alexander groaned then got excited. He said, "I've got it. We get our black belts first off. Then we learn gymnastics and start those two Gongs. BUT! You need to find out how to learn them. Leaping and Levitation go directly to the grand final, with special dispensation. I just used a big word, yay me."

Still pouting and not even cracking a smile at his humour, Willow said, "It's just not fair. Can you believe the iniquity of life? We have the chance to get real Jedi like powers and we don't have time or the teacher. Not even a how to book for dummies. That is sucksville."

Laughing, Alexander gave her a one armed hug. He said, "Patience grasshopper. We must learn to walk before we can run. We must jump before we can jump higher…" He finished off lamely, his David Carradine knowledge failing. Willow giggled at him and hugged him back.

Willow said, "Getting back on track. We are left with a Dim Mak touch attack and the hints of distance chi attacks. Since they are only hints, we might have to leave them alone for now. Although the Dim Mak is cool, we would have to get into close range to do it."

With an agreeing nod, Alexander said, "Ok. So we are left with speed, strength, psychic fight thingy and tough body. Looking at this in a logical and scientific manner, we are already doing two of those. The strength part we can't do properly until we are 16 so that's out for two years at least. The speed part should improve as we get further along in kung fu anyway. That leaves us with tough body and psychic thingy."

Willow said, "I agree on the strength aspect, but not so much on the speed. Improving our speed would have so many advantages it's not funny. We could dodge any hits and avoid attacks not to mention attacking back."

Alexander agreed, "Those are valid points, but what about when you are cornered and don't have room to dodge? Speed can't help you much there. Only the tough body would. Although psychic thingy would help you avoid the cornering altogether."

With an exasperated tone, Willow retorted, "It's called iron shirt or iron body, not tough body. Call it combat intuition not psychic thingy. Apart from that, you have a valid point. So do we want to be intuitive or have an iron like body? Both would be very useful to have."

Putting on his thinking face, Alexander thought. Willow waited, thinking herself. After a while he said, "I vote for iron body. It would probably take a lot of time to learn these and if we went with intuition, then it might fail before we have it mastered. If that happens we could die. On the other hand if we slowly get tougher and harder to damage we automatically get safer."

Willow kept thinking for a while and then said, "Ok let me order that book for us. We can give it a go. If it is too Taoist then we go for combat intuition. I will keep looking for lessons and instructions on the other gongs, for future reference."

Alexander was quiet while she was ordering the book. When she finished, he said, "If we are going to be hunting vampires and using awesome abilities, then we need a name. All those who crusade against the darkness need a group name. Since it's just the two of us, you get to help me come up with it."

Willow looked at him and said, "What the heck are you on about?" He replied, "You know like the Icewind Dale hero's, the Hero's of the Lance, the Knights of Myth Drannor, the Jedi Knights, the Knights Templar, the churches vampire slayer teams, they are all named. Since we are going to do that, we should have a name too."

Willow indulged him and said, "Ok let's hear your ideas?" He blushed and said, "I was hoping you had some."

A smirk and a frown later, Willow said, "Of the ones you named; only two are from our world. Yes, we are going to be vampire slayers, actually we already are. There is no way I am going to be a Knight Templar, so don't even think about it. It's entirely too catholic for me, not that there's anything wrong with it. For you I mean, but not for me, Jewish remember."

Alexander said, "Why don't we combine both religions. The Catholic Knights Templar and the Jewish version. If I remember correctly, Solomon was feared by all demons. Why don't we be the Knights of Solomon?"

Willow smiled at him and said, "I like it. We are the vampire and demon hunters called the Knights of Solomon. If you call me sir, I will give you a thick ear buster." He just laughed and said, "Sure thing my Lady Willow."

In mid dodge, his brain suddenly remembered something and he received a whack to the shoulder for his lapse. With an exclamation he said, "Ow! No hitting when I am remembering. You might damage my brain. I forgot to mention something else I spoke to Father Abrahams about. I asked him if he knew any Rabbi's who were in the know." He held up his hands and gave the parenthesis sign.

Upon hearing the word Rabbi, Willow went into school mode. That is, she listened raptly and had a look of adoration on her face. Before she could grab a pen and notebook, Alexander spoke, "He said he didn't know a Rabbi in particular, but he did know someone who might help us. Her name is Lady Doctor Philippa Sinclair. He is going to contact her when he is in LA next and see if she will help us."

Willow said, "Well that is good news. Or it could be bad news if she can't help us. So who is she? What is with the lady and doctor thing? How can she help us? Will she help us?"

Alexander held up his hands to stop her. He answered, "She is a doctor by profession, being a psychiatrist. She is a lady by marriage and possibly deed. Apparently she was a member of a hunting lodge that fought against Hitler's black lodges during world war two. Now before you ask, lodges are like gangs of mages or mystics. We don't know if she will help us with prayer magic or not. Father Abraham did speak very highly of her though. Being a doctor, she might be very busy and may not have much time for us if at all."

Willow was very excited now. To hear about someone who fought that poopyhead Hitler with magic was awesome. She said, "She sounds wonderful. I really hope she can help us or at least point us in the right direction. I am going to look up all about lodges on the net. I didn't even know Hitler had mages. I bet they were black mages of the evilest sort."

With a nod, Alexander said, "Yeah I sure hope we can get in contact with her. She does sound pretty amazing."

*****

The same evening in Vatican City

Cardinal McCauley was sitting in his office doing some paperwork. There was a knock at the door and his aide came in. He looked up smiling and said, "What's up Paul?"

Paul walked in and said, "There was a disturbance during the evening meal. One of our mediums, Father Bambino, had a visitor. Over a hundred people witnessed the event."

The Cardinal leant back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. In a tired voice he said, "So who was the visitor and what was said?" Paul just handed him a piece of paper.

Unfolding the paper, the Cardinal read-

At 6:22pm on the 6th of October during the year of our Lord 1996

Father Bambino received a visit from Archangel Michael. The Archangel said these words-

_Harken to me ye faithful. I bring the word of our Lord Jesus_

_We are entering end of days for the Ancients war_

_The Knights of Solomon have formed and perilous times are upon us_

_They shall lead the way in training, in knowledge and in battle_

_The protector of man shall wield the spear of destiny to great effect_

_Render them all aid they desire, teach them and in turn learn from them_

_Hinder them or try to control them to the peril of all_

_Now is the time to gather our forces but in secret_

_The time to strike is not yet before us and we are not ready_

_Develop your gifts of the spirit and practice the arts of battle_

_When the time comes the armies of the faithful will march to war_

_We will wipe the spawn of Satan and his demonic allies from the Earth_

_We will march on the demons realms and carry the fight to them_

_One by one they will fall until we are victorious and the Earth is free_

_Fear not the task ahead for you are not alone_

_I, Archangel Michael and my brothers will be with you_

_I will lead the heavenly hosts against the Ancient enemy_

_When the time comes, rise up and fight, but not before_

_To strike before we are ready will bring destruction down upon us all_

_You will be given a sign by the Knights when the final battle begins_

_Our lord and his brothers are with us all, forever more. Amen_

The Cardinal sank back into his chair, aging a decade in the last minute. He murmured, "God preserve us all." He steepled his fingers and sat there deep in thought.

Finally he roused himself and said to Paul, "First of all, ensure that word of this is kept within the Vatican. It is vital this is not leaked. Second, call a meeting of all cardinals and the Pope in an hour's time. Any cardinal not in Vatican city will join us on a conference call. Make hast my son, important days are upon us"

*****

At the same time, in Israel

The Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem was on the phone with the Chief Rabbi of London. Malachi said to Joseph, "It is as I feared then. It isn't just our seers that are effectively blind, but yours as well. You know what this means of course?"

Joseph of London replied, "Yes I do. The final days in the war of the God's will soon be upon us. You know in addition to the whole slew of problems that brings up, there are others. Have you considered how the Orthodox faith will take this? They staunchly believe that there is only one God. I had a hard enough time believing about the Elder Gods and the Ascended Masters when I became Chief Rabbi. Jehovah willing, we win this war. Seeing our God along with his brothers and sisters all together will shock the bejesus out of them."

Malachi of Jerusalem snorted and said, "You do have a way with words my friend. Please call them Angels not Ascended Masters, you know how much they like to visit mediums and I don't feel up to it right now. The last thing I need is an angelic possessed medium beating down my door to berate you. If you think the Orthodox Jews are going to be bad, how do you think the Muslims will take it? It will be one thing when the Christians hear that Jehovah was not Jesus' father, but rather Allah was, they are going to freak. When the Muslims hear that Allah was ambushed and killed, a jihad will be the least we can expect. It is going to be pandemonium."

Joseph shuddered and said, "Let's hope they direct it at the appropriate targets then. Still, it's something we need to consider ourselves. What we do need to consider is, that it is very possible Jehovah will be killed too. You know we lost eight Elder Gods over the last 10000 years; dozens of angels were killed too. Now that we are in the last stages of the war it will be that much more dangerous."

Malachi responded grimly, "It is right that we consider the possibility of that happening. We shouldn't dwell on it though. We need to focus on what we can do to ensure that doesn't happen and that we win the war. We have to put into effect the plans that were made based on the prophecies of Rabbi Isaac. Sometimes I almost wish he never touched the Wailing Wall half a century ago or if he did then no one heard him. They say knowledge is power but ignorance is bliss. I could handle a bit more bliss in my life."

Joseph snorted, "If you want bliss, give your wife some flowers and chocolate. Take her out dancing and get a hotel room or something." He then sobered and said, "The training of our forces must be stepped up immediately. We have puttered about for too long. It's time to put the legendary wealth of the Jews to good effect. Our combat and surveillance teams will have the best training and the best equipment bar none."

Malachi said, "That is the best for all of us. I will be speaking to the president tomorrow. I think Israel's military budget is about to be tripled. The research and surveillance teams will have their work cut out for them over the next few years. When the time to strike comes we must know where all our targets are. If we miss just one…"

Joseph said, "It is too terrible to contemplate. Although it would be easier with seers, I like having our opposition blind. I know our tasks are difficult, some might say overwhelming, but what about the Knights of Solomon. Apparently compared to them we are meant to have it easy. We know nothing of what they are to do except it is crucial to the war. All we know is to give them aid and treat them like we would an Angel."

Malachi replied, "The situation is most troubling. I have only been able to wheedle one hint out of the Archangel. They will be largely separate to our forces but highly instrumental during the war and beyond."

Joseph raised an eyebrow and said in a teasing tone, "Malachi, I never knew you had it in you. Did you try the puppy dog eyes on Gabriel or just whine? And just why didn't you tell me this before?"

Malachi went red and said, "I was putting it off for as long as possible. There is no way I was going to give you more ammunition to use against me." Joseph laughed and Malachi adopted a chastising tone, "I'll have you know I only use my puppy dog eyes on my wife, thank you very much." Joe laughed louder.

*****

Beginning of November 1996

Within a month, the book on 'Awaken Healing Energy Through The Tao' had been bought, read and discussed. It would have been done sooner, but there were other priorities for their money, like kung fu videos and training gear. The book talked a lot about the human body's internal energy system and even had some pressure points in it.

It was a late Sunday afternoon when Alexander rocked up to Willow's joint after his weekly visit to Father Abrahams. He had some more holy water for their supersoakers as well as a couple of surprises. Upon entering he found her, as usual, at her computer.

Rather than surprise the definitely armed red head, Alexander knocked on the door frame. It was a polite knock, not some booming surprise giving knock. It worked, mostly, as Willow spun in her chair, one hand grabbing a stake and the other grabbing a small water pistol. She seemed a little on edge.

Upon seeing who it was, Willow said, "Give a girl a heart attack why don't you?" To which he replied, "I knocked softly and lightly. You know it might be an idea to move your desk. If it faces your door, then you can't be surprised."

A dazzling smile was sent his way closely followed by the red headed girl. She gave him a squeeze that would rival an orange juicing machine. Letting go, she said, "That's a fantastic idea. I'm so glad you are here to help me move it all. Let me log off and we can get to work."

When she dropped the w-bomb on him, he blanched. Even now, two months after he started work, the word still made him cringe. Sure the money and training aspects were good, but the word itself had so many bad connotations. His musings were cut short by an eager Willow in front of him.

A short time later the desk was in a better position, the bed was moved and it was all good. The chances of surprising Willow at her desk were now zero. He flopped down on her bed as she rebooted her computer. He casually said, "I learnt something today."

This got her attention. At her questioning look, Alexander said, "Father Abrahams told me a nice piece of information today. It was funny really, the thought just popped into my head and I blurted out the question. It seems that this world has multiple Hellmouth's. And, oh yes, there are also multiple Heavenmouth's."

Willow goggled at him with mouth wide open. He couldn't help but say, "The flies. The flies Willow. You'll catch flies with your mouth open like that." Then he laughed.

It was proof that she was in shock, that his shoulder remained free from hits. When her mouth closed and brain started again he said, "Apparently there is an active Heavenmouth in the city of Shambala. I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing that the city is hidden. Oh yeah, Jerusalem used to be a Heavenmouth too. Sometime around the middle of the century it was closed. Father Abrahams doesn't know when or how either, I asked."

As predicted, the babble came forth. Willow said, "That is so huge. Do you know what this means? I don't know what this means, but its huge. It's hugely major, massive even. What does a Heavenmouth do? Does it mean you can go straight to Heaven? If demons and vampires hang around Hellmouth's, do Angels hang around Heavenmouth's? I wonder when Jerusalem stopped being heavenly? I hope it wasn't when Israel was reformed. That would be bad."

As she took a breath, he jumped in, "From what I heard, the Mouths are always places of violence. That's why Shambala is hidden, to avoid the violence. Apparently evil wants to close the Heavenmouth's, for obvious reasons. I don't know why the forces of good aren't trying to close the one here. But then again, the Catholic Church has been getting its butt kicked lately. Oh well, maybe one day we can close this one. It might be nice to visit Shambala one day too, if we can ever find it."

Willow said, "Yeah it would be nice to turn this town into a demon free town. Right now though we have no idea where Shambala is, how to close a Hellmouth or even what they are all about. Let's leave that for a later time, like when we have a whole library of books and can fight really, really well."

Alexander said, "You never know, we might find the answers in the first magic book we find. Then again we do know how Mr Murphy works." She opened her mouth, but he held up his hands and said, "Don't worry; I'm not going to jinx us. I'm just paying my respects to Mr Murphy. I think it's safer to do so, don't you think? So have you got your global translator ready to rock or what?"

Willow answered, "Yes, being polite to Mr Murphy is good. No I haven't got the global translator up and running yet. I have only got a little of French put in." He looked at her in surprise. He said, "Is that all? You are the computer queen. Shouldn't you have it knocked up by now?"

She glared at him and put on her annoyed face. She ranted at him, "What do you mean is that all? Do you have any idea how much work is needed to make this happen? No obviously you don't. I'll have you know that I couldn't just jump right in to the translator! I had to set several things up beforehand. I have been writing several programs at the same time. None of them are finished yet, so don't start with me buster."

She huffed, renewed her glare and said, "First I had to come up with a better scanning program. The current ones take up way too much memory on the hard drive. To scan one page takes about a meg of storage. So I am writing a new optical recognition program. For that program alone I had to hack into a large number of places and download their programs. Then I had to go through each one and see what worked and what didn't. Taking bits and pieces from several I compiled them into a new program. Of course there were new bits I had to write from scratch and other areas I had to upgrade myself. With a lot of it done, there is one huge problem. It is only useful for English."

She continued, "Setting that program aside, we move onto the actual global translator itself. Once again I scoured the net for any translation programs available and any that are hidden. There was very little and it was mostly rubbish. So I took what was there and started to add and upgrade it. It is slow going as I have to deal with each word individually. Then there is syntax, grammar and meaning. Each language will need a different set of code written for it specifically. In time I will be able add the optical recognition program into the global translator. That will make it much easier and faster, but that day is a long way off."

Losing the glare and adopting a frown she said, "Don't get me started on how I am going to make the program adaptive. To have a program that can take a scanned page and add it to the database is monumentally hard. There is another thing too. This is all being done in English. It will take a lot more work to reverse the process. You know so it can translate English into Yiddish or even Yiddish into Latin. So don't think this is a weekend project, because it will take years. If we want the program to be verbal and phonetic too, that is a whole new ballgame."

Alexander was apologetic but also slightly miffed said, "Ok so it's a big job. I apologise for not knowing more about programming than I do. It's not like I don't have my work cut out for me either. You aren't the only one with a huge workload." With that he pulled out a bunch of knives in sheaths and handed them to her

He said, "These babies are my latest invention. You know that throwing knife I bought a couple of weeks ago from the military Surplus store? Well these are some copies, with upgrades. Each one has a cross made from aluminium on either side of the blade. I also had Father Abrahams bless them. So when we throw them into vampire flesh, the cross will burn them on the inside and really, really hurt. I haven't figured out how to yet, but I plan on putting crosses in the hilts too, so the vamps will have trouble pulling the knives out. I have to work out the proper balance issues when I adjust the hilt before I can though. It will be a bit harder than when I changed the balance with the aluminium in these. You won't believe the calculations necessary for that!"

This was a subject he was passionate about so there was no stopping him. "I'm also thinking about a combination blade and stake weapon. There are several problems that I need to work out first. It's a totally James Bond type weapon. There's not just metal work, but finicky wood work as well. Oh did you check out the non metal sheaths I made as well. See non metal, I'm diversifying. If you ever tell anyone I had to use my mum's sewing machine to make them, you are so cut off from any new weapons I make."

Willow, wisely, didn't laugh out loud at him. Inside she was giggling up a storm. She had noticed Alexander was very secretive about some books he borrowed recently and now the secret was out. He had learnt sewing, off his own bat. Actually, that was showing amazing initiative. Not to mention him overcoming, well mostly, the whole sewing is for girls, thing. She was actually proud of him. Ooh that felt nice.

Alexander continued, "These knives are only the first model. Eventually I want to make them out of high carbon stainless steel and the crosses from silver. The problem with that is of course money. Having contacts with metal suppliers would also be required as the steel isn't something you can pick up at the hardware store. I figure computer girl can help me find a supplier. I think this phase one throwing knife will have to do for now. We will hold off on phase two until we have the funds, materials and equipment necessary. The phase three knives would be made out of a titanium alloy treated with a specific magnetic field to make it stronger than a katana. That would be the ultimate, although I haven't finished the material composition for that yet. In the mean time, we need to learn how to throw these. In light of that, I picked up another book called 'Knife Throwing: A Practical Guide' which should help us immensely."

Hubba, Hubba was the only thought going through Willow's head. She was always attracted to Alexander but when he talked about a subject with such knowledge and confidence it made her feel warm and tingly downstairs. Cheeks flushed, Willow said, "I'm glad you have such long term plans. Those knives look really nifty. I like the cross idea, it will bring the pain on the sunlight challenged. So what's the low-down on throwing knives?"

He pulled out the book in question and passed it to her. He said, "Make sure you read that. To start with, we need some targets, I'm thinking dart boards. We can check out some pawn shops and if necessary we can buy a new one. There are several different ways to throw knives. I reckon we should learn them all. We should also practice from different positions, like sitting and lying down. You never know when you will need to throw one in the middle of a fight."

Willow nodded and said, "Fine by me. It's another weapon in our arsenal. It might be an idea to change the order of forms we learn in kung-fu. Perhaps we should learn double daggers next?"

Alexander replied, "Ok, sounds like a plan. On another note, you said earlier that you were scanning books into your computer. Would it be possible to create a library on computer? That way we won't have to keep borrowing the same books from the library. I had to get the book on weight training again, since we are about to finish our beginner workout. It would be nice to have the reference on hand whenever we want. It's something to think about instead of buying books or even multiple copies."

This brought a frown to Willows face. She said, "You love making extra work for me don't you. Still, it is a good idea. I'll get started on it soon. If we do that, we will eventually need some sort of library search program. I'll check what's available elsewhere. Who knows, maybe I won't have to write a new program for it. Oh yeah, speaking of new books. You know that book your priesty man told us about, Vampyre. Well I found it in a shop in New Orleans and I ordered it. It arrived Friday and I just finished it. So now it's your turn."

With a grin he said, "Sweet. It's kind of funny. We both just finished a non-fiction book and are lending it to each other. A year ago if you said that would happen; I would have hit you with a pillow to fix your dodgy head. Now it is kind of cool, I like it."

Willow grinned at him and said, "Yeah it is good. I like to think that I have rubbed off on you and you have come to the light side of the force." She waved her hand at him and said, "Books are good. School is good. You will search for knowledge and use it for defence only, never attack." They both laughed at her Ben Kenobi impersonation.

When the laugher died, Alexander reached into his bag again. Pulling out some holy water, he said, "This is your share. I have one last surprise from Father Abraham. He got in touch with Lady Doctor Philippa Sinclair. Here is her email address. Apparently she is willing to help us out. She is also interested in getting more security for her computer. I think it might be best if you contact her first."

Willow got really excited. She had been hanging for this for the whole last month. She grabbed the piece of paper from his hand and turned to her computer. She didn't even hear Alexander's fond laughter.

*****

The day after receiving the Vampyre book was a Monday and that meant school. Lunch time found Alexander sitting in a classroom with the book in front of him. He still had another 20 minutes left so there should be no chance of getting discovered. He even had his folder on the desk ready to cover the book if necessary.

Of course, on the Hellmouth, Murphy's Law was the cornerstone of existence. No one should have bothered Alexander, let alone seen the book he was reading, but someone did. Amy Madison walked into the room straight up to Alexander.

She stopped in front of his desk and said, "Hey Xander hows it going? You seen Willow about?" Alexander was flustered by her sudden arrival, having a dangerous book out in the open and then being called Xander. This meant he was off his game.

He responded, "My name isn't Xander anymore, it's Al…" he didn't get to finish his sentence let alone his name because Amy did something unexpected. She picked up the book and looked at the cover. She said, "My mum has this book."

Alexander went from flustered to gobsmacked. His jaw hung open and he was in serious danger of catching flies. Amy ceased looking at the book and giggled at the sight of him. She waved her hand in front of his face and said, "Yo Al, you in there? Close your mouth will ya, I don't want to see your lunch."

Alexander closed his mouth with an audible 'snap.' What the hell did she just call him? He shot her a glare and said, "The name is Alexander not Al. if you are quite finished with the book, can I have it back?"

Amy smirked at him. It seemed that the name was a button of his. She knew exactly what to do in this instance. You press someone's buttons as much as possible, then press them some more. The smirk turned mischievous and she said, "You can't change your mind Al, only girls can do that. It's in the Rules you know. You specifically told me to call you Al and that's what I'm going to call you, Al."

Alexander was actually getting steamed at this point. He grabbed the book off her and gestured towards the door. He said, "Willow is in the computer room. Off you go now, don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out."

Amy laughed a delightful little tinkle. She pulled up a chair next to him and settled in. His face was actually getting red at this point. This was so much fun. It used to be him and Jesse joking with her, but now he was so serious. Ah crap, Jesse had to be the reason. She sobered and said, "I haven't seen much of Willow or you since Jesse's funeral. I miss him too you know."

Alexander lost his bright red look and his miffedness went away with it. He looked at her long and steady, causing her to squirm a bit. He stamped on the brief surge of triumph he felt at that. He tapped the book with his finger and said, "It was a tough time for a lot of us. It is good you remember him. A lot of people forget those that die or go missing in this town."

This attitude completely threw Amy. This was not the Xander she knew. This Xander was mysterious and serious. Looks like a new attitude to go with a new name. She said, "What are you on about Al? Of curse I remember Jesse, why wouldn't I?"

He looked steadily at her again and said, "Haven't you noticed how people in this town are oblivious to what goes on around them? We have more people go missing in this town than in Washington DC itself. Most people just carry on like nothing weird is going on."

She scoffed at the ridicules thought that Sunnydale could have more people dead or missing than the murder capital of the country. Then she thought about it. There were an awful lot of people going missing or getting dead. Maybe he was onto something. She said, "Ok so that is pretty freaky. So what's the story with that? You seem to know something."

He smiled grimly at her, causing her freaky scale to rise. He then said, "I know some of the story and have theories for the rest. Now you said your mum has this book in her library. Why don't you read it?"

Amy winced at him and saw his eyes soften in concern. That was sweet and at the same time, slightly annoying. She said, "My mum would hit the roof if I did. Her library is completely out of bounds. Once took a book from there to flick through. I put it back, but she knew. It was like she had some camera on them of something, but without the camera."

Hearing this made Alexander even more cautious. He said, "It sounds like your mum knows some of what the story is too. One way or another you have to read this book. Until you do, just stay inside at night."

Amy knew he was holding out on her but then again so was she. She wasn't going to tell anyone her mother was a witch. A full, spell casting, cauldron using, witch. How on earth can you just tell someone spells and magic are real. Oh and by the way, my mum is the wicked witch of the West. She gave him a flinty look and said, "Fine. If I can't read it at home, then you are going to lend it to me."

He looked uncomfortable for a moment then said, "It's not mine actually. I can check if it's ok for you to borrow it, if you fizzle with your mum's one." She had a pretty good idea about who would lend Al a book. She relented and said, "Ok."

The rest of the class started to come in at that point, so conversation stopped. Both of them knew it was far from over though. Where it would lead was anybodies guess.

*****

It was evening on the same day Amy had spoken to Alexander. Her mum had picked her up from gymnastics practice and they were on their way home. As usual her mum was grilling her on how training had gone. It was like her mum had a one track mind.

Eventually her mum wound down and she said, "I saw someone at school today with one of your books." This caused her mum to look at her sharply, swerving the car in the process. With some swearing and squealing of tires, the car was brought under control.

Catherine Madison regained her equilibrium with some slow deep breaths. That statement had come as quite the shock. She asked in a level tone, "So which book, did you see?"

Amy replied, "It was called Vampyre. He freaked when he saw me looking at it. All he would say is to stay inside at night. It was kind of strange since you won't let me go outside at night without you. What's going on mum?"

Catherine breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't one of her spell books or even a book on magic. It was just the basic vampire book, nothing dangerous after all. She thought for a moment on how best to handle this then said, "I'll tell you what. You can read the book but then that's it. No more books, no more questions, nothing. Got it?"

Amy looked at her with wide eyes. Her mum was actually letting her read one of her special books. This was an event of epic proportions. She had to be very careful here. She quickly said, "Sure thing mum, thanks."

Catherine said, "Don't thank me Amy. You had better not let this destroy your focus. Keep your eyes on what we have been working towards. Now who is this little pissant who had the book?"

A spike of fear ran through Amy. Her mums temper was on the rise and this was very bad. If she didn't watch out she would get punished. There was a good chance Willow and Al would cop it too. That was something that had to be avoided. She answered, "His name is Jack O'Toole. He is kind of creepy actually." She hoped her mum bought it and her friends were safe.

Catherine smiled grimly to herself. So Jack O'Toole knew about the real world eh? He was creepy too. Well she knew all about creepy and just what to do with those types. It would not do to have him distract Amy a year out from her target. Oh no, this would not do at all. Perhaps Jacky boy would have an accident very soon. After all, this town was dangerous. People disappeared all the time, especially when their youth could be used to return her own.

*****

The following Sunday saw Amy at Willows place for a junk food pig-out. They were sitting in her room munching away on god's own special gift to women, chocolate. Around a mouthful of pure pleasure, Amy said, "I finished that Vampyre book you and Al read."

Willow started to cough and choke. A piece of chocolate went down the wrong way. Amy thumped her on the back, clearing her throat. With a glare Willow said, "You did that on purpose. No more chocolate for you."

The blood drained from Amy's face. It had been months since she had junk food and a simple prank denied her again. Her thoughts were interrupted by a giggle from Willow, who said, "Got you." The giggling continued.

Amy grabbed another piece of chocolate desperately and shoved it in her mouth. All she could really say was, "Touché." Willow smirked at her and said, "We're even now. So what did you think of the book?"

Grabbing a brownie, Amy said, "It had a lot of information about vampires. Normally I would just think it was one of John's role playing books. When I take into account your's, Al's and my mum's reactions to it, I have to question that conclusion. So is it real or what?"

Willow looked her dead in the eye with her serious face on. She said, "It is real. Vampires exist and they prey upon humans."

Amy sighed. She had hoped it was some sort of elaborate joke, but it wasn't. If her mum could cast spells and deal with the supernatural, then vampires' existing was not much of a stretch. She was shocked when Willow continued, "In addition to vampires, there are also demons and magic. Oh we also live on a Hellmouth."

Amy said in a scared tone, "What the heck is a Hellmouth? I know about magic, but aren't demons what vampires are?" Willow answered, "The Hellmouth is exactly what it sounds like, a gateway to Hell. It is the exact opposite to a Heavenmouth. As for vampires, well you read the book. When their victims are drained and receive vamp blood in return, they get inhabited by a demon. There are also heaps of others, apparently, but I haven't seen any of those."

It was official, Amy was freaked. Demons, Hellmouth's and Heavenmouth's! This was all too much. Vampires she was semi prepared for but this was a whole new level of freaked. So she did the best thing she could do at the time, ate some chocolate. That helped a lot. She ate some more and then said, "Did you just say you haven't seen any demons? That implies that you have seen a vampire. What the heck are you into Willow?"

Willow ate a brownie and said, "I have seen one vampire, Jesse!" Amy shrieked, "OH MY GOD!" Her hands covered to her mouth and she stared at Willow in shock.

Several brownies and half a block of chocolate later, Amy calmed down. Willow was sitting there wistfully, absentmindedly eating, staring off into nothing. Amy thought she looked so sad sitting there. Then the gears in her mind started to turn. She said, "Jesse came after you, didn't he? They said he was killed by a gang on PCP, but it was a vampire wasn't it?"

Willow nodded and said, "Alexander and I were sitting Shiva at his grave when he came out. He attacked us, we all fought and Alexander killed him. It wasn't Jesse exactly, the demon inside was really terrible. I have never been so mad, as I was that night. Alexander and I think all those gang attacks are really vampires. There are a lot of them, let me tell you."

What she just heard boggled Amy's mind. She asked, "How the heck did Al kill a vampire? Those things are twice as fast and four times as strong as a human. You two wouldn't even be considered as strong as one human."

Willow simply said, "We were very lucky. We fought it and Alexander rammed it into a tree that had a broken off branch sticking out. It dusted immediately. We might have survived on luck then, but next time we will stack the odds in our favour." The last sentence was full of determination.

Amy leaned back with a, "Whoa! Let me also put in a wow too. Just what do you mean by next time and stacking the odds?" Willow answered, "We live in vampire central, of course there will be a next time. As for the odds, well we have been training and when ready, we will go hunting."

Amy just looked at her. This was totally unbelievable. Little Willow was talking about going after vampires who were so far out of her league it wasn't funny. In addition to strength and speed, they also healed really fast, along with having claws and fangs. Willow had to be insane.

Willow noticed the expression of her friends face and could tell what she was thinking. She said, "Although vamps have their strengths, they also have their weaknesses. You just need to know how to exploit them."

Amy looked at her with an expression that said 'yeah, right.' She then said, "I know all about their weaknesses, but it won't make any difference. What if you meet more than one? They will probably try to turn you, and then you would come after me."

This made Willow think. She said, "I know Alexander was looking into some armour, I might have to have a chat to him about it. As for dealing with more than one of them, do I look stupid to you? We aren't going after more than one nor any of the older vamps. We will be going after fledglings until we are really, really good. We have our escape plans made up just in case things go bad. We will be doing everything possible to make sure we live and they don't. That being said, if you think we are going to sit back and let Jesse's killer and his kind get away with killing everyone, you have another thing coming."

Amy said, "Ok so you have some plans, but this is dangerous." Willow replied, "So is going out at night. What happens if there is an emergency and you have to go outside at night? There is a good chance you get dead. That's one of the reasons we are training. We will be armed and if we get jumped, then we stand a much better chance of survival. We know where the hot spots are and will stay away from them."

Hearing that, made Amy stop and think. Knowing how to fight did sound like a very good safety precaution. She said, "What hot spots? What are you talking about?" Willow said, "Alexander and I have maps of the whole town. We know where most of the killings take place and when we go hunting, we will stay away from those spots."

Amy just asked, "How?" Willow replied, "We do a paper run each weekday morning. We pay attention to any attacks, killings and missing persons. We mark the areas on the map. It paints a pretty decent picture of where to stay away from at night."

Amy said, "I'm going to have to take a look at that map. I see what you mean about being prepared in case something goes wrong. But come on, what are you doing that could possibly prepare you to take on vampires?"

Willow smirked at her and went to her wardrobe. She rummaged around and pulled out her large supersoaker. She smiled widely and patted it. She said in a very bad Al Pacino impression, "Say hello to my little friend."

They both giggled at that. Willow said, "This is full of holy water. I also wear a cross and carry a stake everywhere I go. I have to be careful my parents don't see the cross, or they would hit the roof. Give me a bit more time and I will have the Jewish side sorted out."

Amy started to think crosses and stakes might be a good idea. She yelped when she saw Willow with a knife in her hand. Willow just smiled and showed her the blade. It had a cross on it. She said, "Alexander made this recently. I take this with me everywhere too. I have to admit, being armed does make me feel safer."

Once again, Amy's mind was boggled. She was having a hard time associating this Willow to the Willow she thought she knew. Carrying knives and stakes was very out of character. More chocolate was needed.

Willow put the knife away and said, "Alexander and I are also training a lot. We are doing fitness, flexibility and strength training. Add to that kung fu, military fighting, knife throwing and mental training. With time we will get our hands on some magic books too. Did you know there is Jewish and Catholic prayer magic? We are definitely going to check that stuff out."

Amy thought about what Willow had just said. Improving physically and learning combat would certainly be the way to go. She was unsure about the mental training, but the magic talk did arouse her curiosity. She asked, "So what types of magic are there?"

Willow answered, "We don't know much about that part yet. We know for sure that religions have magic, usually in the form of prayer. When you consider how many religions there are, there should be heaps of different types out there. With all that we are doing, learning about magic isn't the top priority, but we will get there eventually."

This was the chance Amy had been waiting for. Finally there was someone she could talk to about her mum. She said, "My mum is a witch."

Now it was Willow's turn to boggle at her. It was only for a brief moment before she said, "Of course! Alexander told me your mum had the Vampyre book among others. So what other books does she have? Do you think I could look at them? Are they in English? Can we go ask her now?"

Amy put a stop to the babble before it could really get going. She said loudly, "Stop!" A stunned face and blinking eyes were the result. Amy continued, "My mum is really scary. As in bad witch type scary. I couldn't even risk telling her the truth about who had the vamp book I saw."

Willow went white. She said, "So your mum is a bad witch and she almost knew about Alexander and me? Thank you so much for not telling her. This town is very strange and people in the know disappear all the time. So, umm, who did you say had the book?"

Amy matched Willow in face whiteness. She said, "Jack O'Toole." Willow went even whiter. She said, "I read that he disappeared this week. Oh no! Do you think it was your mum?" Amy just nodded.

They both ate some chocolate and tried to process the conversation so far. After some more brownies Amy said, "So how are you looking into magic? With my mum the way she is, it's kind of important I learn about it too. I need to watch out for myself."

Willow blanched at the thought of a mum who was like that. Her own mum was bad enough, going away a lot and not even really there when she was home. She said, "Well I am writing a translation program at the moment, so I don't have to learn a new language. If it was only one language it would be fine, but Jewish magic alone would need at least three. I have also just found out about someone who should be able to tell me a lot about magic or at least point me in the direction of the right books. Say, do you know the names of the books your mum has?"

Amy shook her head and said, "When I was ten I saw her books and I copped it bad enough to never go back. She must have had some sort of spell on them, because she knew. She actually handed me the vamp book so I didn't get a chance to see them again."

Willow got excited and said, "Have you thought about hypnosis for memory? Some of the mental exercises Alexander and I do are self hypnosis. I could lend you the books or even guide you through myself, if you like."

Amy gave Willow a very flat look and said, "No way in hell! Keep your mind benders to yourself thank you very much. No one is going to mess with my head. If you think I am risking anyone knowing my secrets or making me squawk like a chicken you are sadly mistaken. You have any other ideas that don't involve screwing with my head?"

Willow back-pedalled, "We don't have to do any hypnosis. No hypnosis for Amy. Got it. See imprinting in my head hypnosis and Amy equals bad. All better now. Actually I do have another idea. Is it possible to take a photo through the door or window?"

Amy shook her head saying, "The books are either in the basement, which is banned, or in her bedroom, which is on the first floor. The basement is out completely and looking through the first floor window during the day is a really bad idea. So I have to say no to the camera, but it was a good idea."

Willow shrugged her shoulders and said, "I guess we have to do it the hard way then. Hopefully I can get the names of some good books to start with from the contact I have."

Amy nodded and said, "That would be good. In the mean time, how about you show me some of that self defence stuff." Willow smiled and said, "Sure thing. How about we start with the videos first? There is no way I will be able to give a decent demo after that much junk food. Better let it settle a bit."

They went downstairs and watched three videos on kung fu. Each video showed one form and the techniques for that level. Kung fu forms are like really long and involved katas. The forms were called Small Tiger, Staff and Kung Lic. Small Tiger was an unarmed, animal based form. Staff was a form using a six foot long quarterstaff that was slightly bendy. Kung Lic was an unarmed form placed in all styles by the kung fu association.

Amy was pretty impressed by what she saw. There was just one problem though, a severe lack of time. She said, "I would like to learn all that, but I don't have much time at all. First there is school then every afternoon I have gymnastics until 7pm. Saturday is all gymnastics until 5pm. All I really have is Sundays. I don't know how much I can learn in just one day a week."

Willow said, "You are already in great shape from your gymnastics. You are flexible, strong and have great balance. You are well ahead of Alexander and me already. We may know more techniques but you have us beat in other areas. You took several types of dance when you were younger, so picking this up shouldn't be too hard." Willow pointed at herself and said, "Computer geek, remember. Sure I am on my way to being a kick butt computer geek, but I have only just started."

Amy smiled at her and said, "An armed kick arse computer geek. Ok so I should be able to pick it up faster than you two. You have to know that the further along you go, the faster you will pick it up. Once you become used to moving in a certain way, it gets much easier."

Willow smiled back and said, "That sounds good. Can we hurry up and get to that point already though?" Amy giggled at her. Willow continued, "We could try showing you bits during lunch time at school. Maybe spend the first half showing you, then the second eating. We won't be able to video tape you during the week though, only on Sunday."

This puzzled Amy. She asked, "Why would you want to video tape me? We already have your master on tape. He can do the forms and moves better than we can."

Willow responded, "We use the video tapes as a teaching and training tool. We don't have a large room full of mirrors to train in, so we can't see what we are doing, a lot of the time. The video tape helps us to see what it looks like. We can compare how it looks to how it feels and make adjustments to improve our technique."

Amy nodded and said, "That's a great idea. You never quite know how you look when you are doing it. It's funny to see myself at gymnastics competitions compared to the other girls. I think using the video camera will speed up your training a whole lot."

Willow grinned at her and said, "We also do what's called mental imagery and visualisation. The video helps for that too. We go over in our heads the forms and techniques. We do it from the inside as if we are actually doing it, then we go through it from an observers perspective. It really helps cement it in your head. It's like we are training, even though we are not moving."

This was something new to Amy. She said, "That sounds like a good thing to do. Do you have a book on it or something? I might try that for my gymnastics." Willow shook her head and said, "I borrowed it from the local library. If you want to borrow the book, I can see about scanning it to computer then I can give you a copy on cd. Then you will always have it."

Amy nodded vigorously. She said, "Definitely. I think I can convince my mum to drive me this week. Anything to help my gymnastics is good in her book. Now enough talk; show me how to punch someone will you?"

For the next couple of hours, Willow and Amy did martial arts. Willow showed her the basic straight punches, both arms, regular and southpaw stance. She also showed her the groin kick and the defence against the attacks. The Small Tiger form was started on and that led into showing her the various stances of kung fu. The safety aspects were also covered, like not locking out your elbow or knee joints when you kick or punch.

When Alexander showed up, training kicked up a notch. They cycled through different pairs. Some would work on the focus pads and kick shield, while the other did form practice. Amy also got to watch them sparing. Liberal use of the video camera occurred all afternoon.

During training and when they finished, Amy had a lot of questions about technique and why something was done a certain way. When Willow said they didn't know to some of the questions, Amy suggested an email asking the master. Willow thought this was a great idea and rushed off to her computer. The email ended up having several pages worth of questions from all three of them.

*****

Middle of December 1996

It was late Sunday morning on a cold winter's day. The sky was overcast and there was a chill wind blowing. Most normal people were inside. The few that were outside were all rugged up against the cold. The two girls in the Rosenberg backyard were certainly not normal.

Willow and Amy were dressed in tight lycra exercise clothing. They were currently packing up their kung fu gear and getting ready to head inside. Although the day was cold, they were both dripping in sweat. It had been a very productive workout.

Heading inside, the girls re-hydrated and towelled themselves dry. After a five minute warm down stretch, both threw on a track suit and hoodie. There was no sense showering since they would be working out again later on.

As was often the case, Willow's parents were out. So getting lunch was up to them. In the past, junk food would have sufficed. But today healthy sandwiches were made and quickly consumed. Lounging around the dining room, the two teens felt the contentment that post exercise always brought.

Alexander wasn't due there for another couple of hours, so it was time to act like teenage girls. This was something that had become a bit of a tradition lately. Neither girl really had any other female friends, so it was a very pleasant change. For a few hours on a Sunday, wicked witches, vampires and training did not exist. It was just two girls watching romance movies and talking about Johnny Depp.

Alexander rocked up mid afternoon. Luckily the movie had finished and they were just gossiping. He had suffered through Pretty In Pink one time too many for any guy, which was of course just the once. Today was much better than last week, when he had seen through the window that some period piece with women in absurd clothes was on. He had to do several laps of the block to avoid watching any of it.

The usual greetings and small talk occurred when he went inside. Once that was done, instead of getting straight into training like normal, Willow led them upstairs. She had something to show them. Switching on her computer screen, she called up some images.

When Amy and Alexander leaned closer to the screen, Willow said, "These are pictures of the Vatican's slayer team memorials. I hacked into the church's servers and downloaded a heap of data. Unfortunately it's all encrypted. These pictures were the only parts that weren't."

Alexander blew out a heavy breath and said, "There sure are a lot of dead here. All these people died fighting the good fight. They are real heroes. Is there any information linked to these pictures?"

Willow shook her head and said, "There is, but even that is encrypted. Although we can't read the files, these pictures tell us plenty. Have a closer look and tell me what you see."

Amy answered first, "All of them are wearing some sort of armour. There are lots of different types, but certain pieces are worn by a lot of them. I think they all have some sort of gun too. There are a lot of weird spear type weapons, lots of chunky stakes and a couple of crossbows."

Alexander nodded and said, "Do you see how all of them have some sort of neck protector? Some have collars and the others have a coif of some kind. Some of them are very lightly armoured while others are fully suited up. With what I know about armour, some of that stuff looks really bad. Sure there is some really good protective gear on them, but others are just plain stupid, suicidal even."

Willow turned her head to him and said, "I'm glad you said that, because I thought so too. Some of that armour does look really dodgy. These photos give us some very good ideas though. You had better come up with a more effective set for us to wear Alexander."

Alexander smirked at her and said, "You just love giving me more work to do don't you?" At her affronted look he said, "Turnabout is fair play Willow. Don't worry; this face is on the case. I have already got some plans in the works and seeing this will help even more. I am going to need a copy of these pictures for further study."

Amy took control of the mouse and scrolled quickly up and down the pictures. She then said, "Look closely at the figures of these people. They look really out of shape. Sure a couple look strong, but most have beer bellies."

Alexander looked closer and said, "Yeah you are right. They look really out of shape. I don't think there are any military or even ex military people there. What are they thinking? It doesn't make sense to go into the fight like that."

Willow said quietly, "Maybe that's one of the reasons they died." Amy looked at her sharply, but Alexander said, "Maybe. I don't want to speak ill of the dead, especially heroes, but I tend to agree. Being out of shape is a big hindrance in any fight, especially against vampires who are so much stronger and faster than humans."

Amy said, "That may well be, but they do have a lot of good ideas. They use guns, so we now know that they are useful against vampires. If you look at the team photo's they have on average teams of ten, including one priest per team."

Willow said, "Yeah all the teams have a priest each. That says blessings and maybe spells to me. Now who do we know that might be able to fill that role?" Both Willow and Amy looked pointedly at Alexander.

He frowned and said, "Hey I'm not the only magic person here. I'm willing to stand up and do the Catholic version, especially in light of recent information. Willow, you have been practicing your Jewish warding prayers haven't you? And you Amy, have you decided on what branch of magic you are going to learn?"

The two girls shared a smirk and Willow said, "Of course. I have been practicing the prayers on the phone with Philippa. I don't have all the reagents yet but I do have the movements memorised. Have you?"

He huffed and said, "I spent the last hour going over the correct Latin pronunciations with Father Abrahams. I should be ready to ward and cloak my place in the next week or so. I'm really glad Philippa explained it all properly. If I just had the book, I would have been in serious trouble. Could you imagine what might have happened if I just did the warding without the cloak? It would have set up a beacon for anyone with decent magical talent to notice."

Shudders went through all of them at that thought. Warding their homes had many benefits, but calling that sort of attention to themselves was very bad news. Amy was lucky that she didn't need to bother with any wards. Her mother already had plenty of spells on her house and any more from Amy would not be a good idea.

Willow said, "You are very lucky in a way Alexander. Your Catholic magic is very much suited to demons and Hellmouth's. Jewish magic is primarily for large scale battles. There are very few spells that only one person can do. Thankfully there are a couple of wards I can put up. If I had nine more Jews, then I could put up several more and they would be much more powerful."

Alexander frowned and said, "What's this about large scale battles? You didn't tell me about that? For that matter what's with the large number of people needed to ward better? Pretty much all the prayer spells I have read about are individual ones."

Willow put on her teacher face and said, "Well your magic is very different to mine. The book Philippa put you onto was based on Templar magic. Sure they fought in large battles, but they cast their spells as individuals. Jewish magic on the other hand was done by many people together. We are most effective when casting as an army or as a people. Surely you remember the ten plagues of Egypt and bringing down the walls of Jericho?"

Seeing him shake his head she said, "You saw The Ten Commandments didn't you?" Recognition flared behind his eyes. She continued, "The plagues, the parting the red sea and the pillar of flame are all examples of Jewish magic. It's pretty much all large scale with large numbers of people. Unfortunately it's also one of the reasons Hitler targeted the Jews. Together, as a people we are very dangerous. If Israel had been around during the Second World War, we would have put him in his place quick smart."

Amy said, "That puts a whole new spin on the second world war. What about individual spells though? Are there any that you can cast to help with demons or vampires?"

Willow replied, "Possibly. At the moment, the answer is no. The key to that sort of magic is Solomon. From what Philippa has told me, there are some items that Solomon had that could banish or kill demons. In this day and age nobody can do that on their own; it needs at least ten Jews. Perhaps if I had access to Solomon's spells I might be able to. Those are either lost forever, hidden or kept very secret."

Alexander said, "I guess that means you won't be big with the spells any time soon. I hardly have any spare time at the moment, but during the summer holidays I will try to learn Latin. That will give me access to some spells at least. What about you Amy? You never answered my earlier question."

Amy rolled her eyes and said, "Trying to get a word in edgeways around you two is a monumental task sometimes." She smiled at the looks they sent her and said, "Yes I have decided what magic I am going to learn. I won't be learning any type of religious magic. If I did, that would make me a hypocrite and that's not a good idea when dealing with deity type magic."

Seeing two bewildered faces, Amy said, "One of the books Philippa recommended was The Nature of Magic. It goes into all the different types of magic and how they work. Make sure you read it sometime, it's very informative. Basically it says that for magic to work, power is needed. Where you get the power is the key. Some get power from a deity, which is the basis behind religious magic. Some get power from themselves, from within, like those kung fu gongs you told me about. Some get power from the world around them, like the Elementalist. Some like Wicca, Shamanism or Druidism combine several ways. Then there are the evil ways. Think ritual sacrifice or stealing another's life force, and necromancy. The evil ways basically steal their power or bribe some demon for some of theirs."

Amy continued, "I have decided to learn Elementalism to start with. I will also look into Wicca, Shamanism, Druidism and American Indian magic. Elementalist's are probably the closest to the classic fantasy mages. It is the most useful I could find for direct combat. The other aspects I will study for the rituals they use. I have to admit, it sounds absolutely fascinating."

Alexander grinned at her and said, "I like the sound of that. So I will be like a paladin, you can be the druid mage and Willow will be a fighter thief." Willow looked outraged at that and smacked him in the shoulder, quite hard.

Alexander yelped and said indignantly, "What was that for?" Willow glared at him and said heatedly, "I'm no thief!"

Amy came to Alexanders rescue and said, "What do you call hacking?" Willow tried to keep the indignant look going, but quickly wilted. She said, "Ok you got me. But that's not really bad is it?"

Amy answered, "Damn straight it's not bad. It's actually very good for us. It's not hurting anyone and it's actually helping us get ready to kill vampires."

Alexander weighed in, "It is going to be what we all do very soon anyway." Seeing two quizzical looks sent his way, he clarified, "You know, vampires. When they die, they leave their clothes. Their clothes usually have wallets. When you kill the monster you loot the corpses, it's what all heroes do. Even Drizzt Do'Urden would loot some baubles from the enemy's corpses."

Both girls thought about the idea for a moment before nodding. Alexander kept going, "I couldn't help but notice that Amy included herself when talking about getting ready to kill vampires. So are you going to come hunting with us Amy?"

Willow looked eagerly towards her friend. Alexander had a slightly smug and triumphant look on his face. Amy was looking at her lap quietly. She said, "Well I guess I am. I don't want you guys to get hurt and three people are a lot better odds than just two. Besides, now that I know how many people disappear in this town, I can't just sit idly by and let it happen. It's one thing if there was nothing I could do, but I think you guys will actually be able to pull this off. Not right now of course, but eventually."

Willow grabbed her in a rough hug and Alexander clapped her on the shoulder. Alexander said, "I guess I will have to make some weapons for you then."

Amy leant back quickly with an eager look in her eye. She said, "Can you make me a bow and arrows?" He looked at her quizzically and said, "Huh. Where did that come from?"

Amy rolled her eyes and said, "From the slayer team photographs. Several people used crossbows. As far as I am concerned, the crossbow is something only incompetents use instead of a bow. Why spend time stuffing about trying to wind or crank the string back on a crossbow, it takes too long. With a bow you can send several arrows at the target per shot of a crossbow."

Willow said, "It does make sense. All the slayer team members had guns, but Alexander is the only one who can shoot one or even has access to one. It is much easier and cheaper to buy a bow. I saw one recently in a sporting store. A bow gives us some more ranged attacks plus you can get arrows made of wood. Shoot a vamp in the heart with a wooden arrows and it will go dusty."

Alexander smirked and said, "Let's not forget that Amy seems to really like bows too." A mock glare was sent his way. He continued, "I can't make you one at the moment. I couldn't even make an arrow. With time, research, practice and equipment, I could, but that won't be for a while. We are going to have to buy one."

Amy wilted and said, "Money is a bit of a problem. I don't get pocket money, my mum doesn't trust me not to buy chocolate with it." Willow leapt to her friend's aid with, "We will buy them then. It makes sense for Alexander and me to get a bow each. We need the ranged attack and we have no guns to use. The Supersoakers are pretty much close range only."

At first Alexander was put out at having his money spent for him. Then he thought about it and decided that it was a good idea. He said, "We will have to find a place to practice in. We can't do that in our basements or backyards. It might be an idea to avoid populated areas too. A football field could work, but do we want to practice in town, where anyone can see?"

Willow said, "Sounds like a bike ride out of town and into the desert then. Although it will cut into the Sunday kung fu training, I think we should do it." Amy nodded at her and Willow continued, "Ok so next Sunday afternoon we jump on our bikes and hit the desert for some archery practice. That means we had better make this afternoons session count."

The three got up and headed downstairs. They did their warm up in the kitchen then went out into the cold to train. Within minutes they were hot and had to take off their outer layers.

The two girls enjoyed seeing Alexander train in shorts and a singlet. The exercise program was definitely paying off. Amy just plain enjoyed the eye candy. Willow was another story entirely. Each time they trained together it affected her heart and lower area. It was lucky that she was red from exercise so her blush was camouflaged.

The girls weren't the only ones to enjoy a show. Alexander is a teenage male in the middle of puberty; this means he can get aroused from just sitting over the wheels on a bus. To see a gymnast in lycra whacking the daylights out of focus pads or a kick shield was truly tissue worthy. What really worried him though, was how much he liked to watching Willow train. He never knew she had such a cute body. She was usually covered in clothes her mother picked out. To see her in lycra was a real eye opener. It was quite frankly disturbing how much he liked it.


End file.
